The contract involves three projects where Netafim will supply advanced irrigation systems to support 35,000 farmers across 66 villages in the Indian state of Karnataka
Netafim to build irrigation systems for farmers in India. (Credit: Netafim.)
Netafim, an Israeli irrigation equipment-maker, has secured a contract worth $85m to supply advanced irrigation systems to 35,000 farmers in India.
The new contract includes three large projects in the country, where irrigation systems will be built and community irrigation model will be followed.
The three projects will cover 66 villages and 35,000 farmers dependent on 50,000 hectares (123,500 acres) of land in the Nandwadgi and Singatalur regions in the state of Karnataka.
The projects will be developed over two years and will include technical and agronomic support for a further five years.
Netafim has also partnered with Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited (MEIL), an infrastructure company in the country.
Netafim to support farmers who want to grow wide range of crops
Netafim will also train the local farmers to operate the systems as part of the project execution. Several crops have been planned for the area including onion, chilli, pepper, corn, peanuts, beans, sunflowers and other crops.
Netafim president and CEO Gaby Miodownik said: “Especially in these days of global crisis, this new mega-deal in India represents a vote of confidence in Netafim, its solutions and accomplishments.
“The uniqueness of these projects is in their community model, which along with local government involvement enables a huge number of farmers and villages to improve their livelihoods.
“The Indian government has always been extremely supportive of the agricultural sector, and now more than ever this support is important for securing the economic stability of local farmers and food security in the country.
“These projects deploy NetBeat systems for digital farming which enables real-time control of the irrigation systems using cloud technologies and allows access from any mobile device. Netafim intends to expand the community irrigation project model to other countries characterised by a large number of small farmers.”
The collaboration between the Israeli company and government agencies is expected to help farmers form ‘irrigation communities’ which are expected to make it economically feasible to develop comprehensive and large-scale infrastructure projects.