Precision That Pays: Improving Yield, Quality & Profitability with Proportional Dosing

Interview with Avi Mileguir, Tefen Sales Manager

As growers face rising input costs, water scarcity, labor shortages, and increasingly unpredictable weather, precision fertigation has become essential for producing higher yields, better-quality crops, and consistent results while using fewer resources.
For more than five decades, Tefen Technologies has been developing precision dosing technologies in close collaboration with growers, irrigation professionals, and agronomists worldwide. This field-driven approach has led to practical, reliable solutions that help farmers maximize every irrigation cycle, improve nutrient efficiency, and reduce waste. One of the company’s flagship innovations is the MixRite proportional dosing pump.
According to Avi Mileguir, Tefen Sales Manager, Tefen Technologies is helping growers across diverse climates and crops improve productivity, crop quality, and profitability through more precise fertigation.

The Power of Proportional Dosing
Unlike conventional injection systems that deliver a fixed quantity of fertilizer or chemicals, Tefen Technologies‘ proportional dosing technology continuously adjusts the injection rate according to the volume of water flowing through the irrigation system.
“The difference is fundamental,” explains Mileguir. “Instead of saying, ‘I want to inject five liters of fertilizer,’ the grower can simply decide that every cubic meter of irrigation water should contain a specific percentage of fertilizer or acid. The pump automatically maintains that exact ratio regardless of changes in water pressure.”
The MixRite pump automatically maintains the proportion between the injected dose and the water flow rate, regardless of fluctuations in water pressure.

Better Nutrient Uptake, Less Waste
Plants benefit not from receiving more fertilizer, but from receiving nutrients at concentrations they can absorb efficiently. By delivering fertilizers, acids, and other additives proportionally throughout the irrigation cycle, Tefen Technologies’ dosing solutions improve nutrient availability while reducing losses and unnecessary input costs.
“In many non-proportional systems, growers know how much fertilizer left the tank,” says Mileguir. “What they don’t know is how much was actually absorbed by the crop.”
As fertilizer prices continue to rise worldwide, improving nutrient use efficiency has become a significant economic advantage.

More Uniform Crops, Lower Harvest Costs
One of the first improvements growers notice after switching to MixRite is greater crop uniformity. Plants develop more consistently, resulting in balanced plant growth and more uniform fruit development.
Mileguir recalls a papaya plantation where aerial images clearly demonstrated the difference.
“In the field irrigated with a MixRite TF10 pump, the trees were remarkably uniform in size. In the neighboring plot using another dosing technology, plant development was noticeably uneven.”

The benefits continue through harvest. More consistent fruit size, shape, color, and maturity allow growers to harvest larger volumes during each picking round. In intensive crops, this reduces the number of harvesting passes required and lowers one of agriculture’s largest production costs: labor.
“The more uniform the crops, the fewer harvesting passes are needed,” Mileguir explains. “That translates directly into lower labor costs.”

Better Quality Beyond the Field
The advantages of precise fertigation continue after harvest.
In raspberry production, growers using Tefen Technologies’ proportional dosing systems have reported shelf-life improvements of up to two additional weeks, allowing fruit to remain marketable for longer and reducing post-harvest losses.
For highly perishable crops, even a few extra days can significantly improve market value and profitability.

A Raspberry Grower’s Experience with MixRite
A raspberry grower who switched from fertilizing with a gasoline pump to MixRite reported clear benefits: lower fertilizer consumption, fuel savings, and more precise EC control.
With the proportional dosing system, the grower also observed healthier, more vigorous plants without leaf-edge burn, as well as a significant improvement in fruit quality. Most notably, the raspberries were larger from the beginning of harvest and maintained their size even after peak production. For the grower, Tefen Technologies’ solution delivered better results in plant health, fruit quality, fertilizer efficiency, and overall operating costs.

Essential for Modern Growing Systems
Inert Substrates
As hydroponic and aeroponic cultivation expands, along with the use of inert substrates, precise fertigation becomes increasingly critical.
The same principle applies to greenhouse vegetables, flowers, and many other high-value crops, where accurate nutrient delivery is essential for consistent production.

Accurate pH Management
Many berries, greenhouse crops, and soilless production systems require continuous pH adjustment, making precise acid dosing essential.
While many growers still inject concentrated acids manually, increasing both safety risks and dosing errors, MixRite automatically injects the exact proportion required according to the irrigation flow.
“The process both becomes safer and much more accurate,” says Mileguir.

Proven Across Multiple Continents
Through his work across Europe, Africa, India, and Latin America, Mileguir has seen remarkably consistent results across different crops and production systems.

Growers using Tefen Technologies’ dosing solutions repeatedly report:
– More accurate and efficient fertigation
– Reduced fertilizer waste
– Improved crop uniformity
– Enhanced crop performance by reducing blossom abortion under stress conditions
– Lower harvesting costs
– Extended fruit shelf life
– Increased profitability

Precision Agriculture Starts with Precision Dosing
Precision agriculture begins with technologies that deliver measurable results in the field. By maintaining the exact proportion between water and injected products, Tefen Technologies’ MixRite technology helps growers improve nutrient efficiency, crop uniformity, produce quality, and profitability while making better use of water, fertilizers, and labor.
For Tefen Technologies, MixRite represents more than a single product; it reflects the company’s long-standing commitment to solving real agricultural challenges through innovation. For more than 50 years, Tefen has worked closely with growers around the world to develop practical, reliable technologies that improve productivity and simplify farm management.
As agriculture continues to evolve, Tefen Technologies remains committed to developing innovative solutions that help growers meet changing challenges, optimize resources, and produce more with less.