One Stop Agro Shop model
'leave the world better than you found it'
Amnon Ofen, Director, NaanDanJain
The irrigation companies that developed in Israel lead and contribute much to global agricultural development because, Amnon says, of Israel’s history of being a small country in which collaboration among all four branches of its agriculture – the farmer, technological production systems, R&D and professional field services, was mutually supportive.
Most of the world’s farmers work in developing countries and find it hard to use modern technology. They are mainly smallholders in remote regions with an acre of land, sometimes less. Irrigation companies must provide them with the game changing resources and the knowhow.
NaanDanJain together with its parent company, Jain Irrigation, offer the most extensive line of irrigation solutions in the world. They developed the One Stop Agro Shop model, designed to provide smallholders with added value from planning, through seeds, saplings and nutrients, modern irrigation systems, pipes and water supply to the smallholding, agronomical knowhow, purchasing crops and processing them into food.
Sustainable agriculture is maintained by recycling production materials and turning them into biofuel.
The companies have developed an integrated holistic concept for turnkey regional agro projects, mainly for smallholders, called ‘From Resource to Root’.
The company is currently finishing the largest drip irrigation project anywhere in the world. It is located in India; it covers 12,300 hectares and encompasses more than 7000 farmers. All systems are fully automated.
Precision agriculture technology forms part of NaanDanJain’s service to the individual farmer. The company’s size allows it to reduce costs to the farmer.
Most of the world still uses traditional and highly inefficient flood irrigation. It wastes precious water and nutrients. The only viable solution is micro-drip irrigation, which delivers both water and nutrients together (known as fergitation) and can double yields.
Advanced irrigation techniques will require knowhow, artificial intelligence technology, satellite and UAV imagery, sensors and monitors for highly accurate fergitation instructions. They will also facilitate early problem analysis and drastically reduce agriculture’s inherent uncertainty.
Greenhouse crops will become increasingly prevalent, thus absolving the farmer from the vagaries of weather and dependence upon rainfall.
Only companies as large as NaanDanJain that place the farmer at the top of the pyramid can provide added value by making him a member of a cooperative that help him cut costs and develop modern markets, while providing a strong backing against marketers and large-scale market forces.
Global warming and its attendant water shortages will force farmers around the world to adopt water saving methods such as the drip irrigation for which NaanDanJain provides leadership. As we say, ‘leave the world better than you found it’.
