One thing Israel is widely respected for is the advances it has made with regards horticulture in general, and irrigation in particular. There are numerous examples throughout the country where land that was either malarial swamp or desert has been transformed to be a productive resource. Much of this change has been achieved through the use of advanced irrigation techniques – Israeli irrigation companies have an extensive history of exporting their technology globally.

As global warming and population growth demand more outputs from the agricultural and horticultural sector, there is a huge investment in the space. Last year, Google CEO Eric Schmidt‘s Innovation Endeavors fund launched the Farm2050 collective, an initiative designed to accelerate the development and commercialization of agricultural technology.

Today the first investment since the launch of Farm2050 is being announced, and it is an Israel irrigation company that takes the honor. CropX delivers an adaptive irrigation service. The CropX system automatically analyzes the exact water needs of different parts of each field based on topography, soil structure, and current moisture. Farmers download a mobile app and place three wireless sensors in the ground. These sensors continuously send soil readings to the cloud, where the CropX software determines how to effectively irrigate different parts of the field based on pattern-recognition analysis.

CropX has raised $9 million in Series A funding, led by Finistere Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, and GreenSoil Investments. The company is actually borne of both Israeli and New Zealand research and development – both these countries bring their own experience to the table. Israel has the aforementioned experience leveraging minimal water for maximum gain. New Zealand, on the other hand, has no shortage of water but increasing concerns about the environmental impacts of over-irrigation, and the ensuing water run-off, have led to a desire to apply the correct amount of water for every different situation.

It is this water management angle that increases the applicability of what CropX is doing – the ability to closely control the amount of water being delivered to every part of a farm will not only increase the water-use efficiency of an agricultural operation, but it will also help deliver the very best yields possible – something that the growing population, and need to feed that population, demands.

CropX has been validated in the field over the past five years. One customer, Mike Mills, is positive about what CropX is helping him achieve. The Missouri farmer said that:

Before CropX, there was no cost-effective way to control our irrigation infrastructure. We are now able to accurately and easily manage our irrigation and make real-time adjustments – all from a smartphone and across multiple farms and fields. CropX’s solution allows us to lower our water and energy usage.

As the need to produce more from agriculture increases, but the amount of water that we have available descreases, solutions like CropX will become increasingly important. The farm of the future will look very different from that of the past, CropX is an example of that.

Article via Forbes Tech. Read it here.

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