Just like the guy in the picture in the link, I used to work on agricultural research and farmer's fields, gathering agrometeorological data on-site, automating the collection, assembling electronics and instrumentation, number crunching the data, relating to plant responses to various stresses, helping international scientists the world all over, help screen the germplasm for drought tolerances. That was in the mid 1980's when the cool thing for us way back then was the hand-held infrared thermometer used to determine crop canopy temperature. We also measured leaf water potential using portable pressure chambers and other cool stuff.

Lasers have been used for precision leveling of ground and sensors actuate farm machineries to determine cut and fill during leveling, to help manage direction of water flow and other precision farming requirements. Now it is being used another way, to assess water demand and evapotranspiration to schedule watering to save and conserve water by using it most efficiently.

But alas for most journalists, the title like the one below is misleading:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28448206/

To which I will answer: No, the lasers can never replace the sprinklers! Lasers can be used for monitoring and scheduling the irrigation of crops, but LASERS will not deliver the water. Sprinklers are one way to deliver the water, but lasers, no way as of today! I was hoping to read that perhaps lasers with certain frequencies can be fired unto the clouds, setting off a chain reaction to trigger the pouring of the rain, very efficiently and economically, thus replacing the sprinklers. I've been mislead once again by the catchy but faulty titles that only irresponsible journalists can come up with.