Israeli Agtech partnership forms to bring data-backed irrigation solution

COVID might be our current most imminent threat but there are two looming mega-disasters sitting and waiting around the corner in the form of a global food shortage and the continuous threatening reality of climate change. However, as with the incredible innovation and technological advancement we’ve seen become part of our everyday lives, accelerated by the pandemic outbreak, so will technology and joint innovation feed solutions to our post virus landscape.

Two Israeli agtech companies recently teamed up to accomplish just this, as data-driven precision irrigation systems developer, Viridix, joined forces with Talgil, professional irrigation controller manufacturer. This partnership aims to provide the global farming community with an integrated precision irrigation solution.

Farmers are now able to define and implement an irrigation protocol that delivers their production goal. Viridix’s highly accurate, low maintenance sensors continuously monitor soil moisture at varying ground depths. The system analyzes this data to calculate the required irrigation volume and timing, and automatically adjusts the irrigation plan. The Talgil irrigation control system then executes the plan to provide plants with just the right amount of water. The Talgil irrigation controllers ensure that no matter how many plots a grower cultivates, each one receives the exact amount of water it needs.

“Viridix and Talgil are a natural fit,” said Viridix CEO Tal Maor, who founded the company in 2016 along with COO Mor Yegerman and CTO Arik Shitrit. “Both companies leverage advanced technology to deliver high impact with minimal hassle, and it makes total sense to create a joint offering that delivers greater value than each system separately. Through this collaboration, we are able to close the precision irrigation loop and offer growers the advanced level of automation they need to meet their production goals in an efficient and sustainable manner.”

This solution will potentially provide farmers around the world with an advanced solution to monitor and calculate every drop of the most important resource on this planet, water. Further enabling farmers, especially in arid areas, to carefully plan irrigation using a data-backed approach, which hopefully will ensure more efficient crop growing process, while saving both costs and water.

According to Yosee Ochman, Deputy General Manager at Talgil, “The collaboration with Viridix adds another important dimension to the value we deliver to our customers: data. Now our customers no longer have to manually calculate irrigation plans for different plots, or manually adjust them for changing weather conditions. Viridix provides precise and highly granular irrigation prescriptions implemented across plots. Real time soil water-potential data also helps close the operational loop and ensure water goes where it should.”