Israel-headquartered irrigation equipment maker, Netafim has clinched an $85 million deal which will involve three new community irrigation projects in Karnataka.
These three projects will cover 66 villages and 35,000 farmers on 50,000 hectares area (123,500 acres) in the state of Karnataka (Nandwadgi and Singatalur regions).
Projects will be deployed over a period of two years and will include technical and agronomic support for a further five years.
For the project execution, Netafim will collaborate with Indian Infrastructure company, MEIL (Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited), the company said in a statement.
Netafim has been pioneering the drip irrigation mechanism globally which involves significant reduction in water, pesticide usage, improving the quality of agriculture produce for sustainable farming activities.
Besides, the global firm will also train Karnataka farmers to operate advanced irrigation systems for growing wide range of crops including to operate the advanced systems.
A wide range of crops are planned for the area including onion, chili pepper, corn, peanuts, beans, sunflowers and various others.
These projects are an extension of the successful Ramthal community irrigation project in the state of Karnataka which was completed in 2017, and additional four projects in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh which were secured by Netafim in 2018 and which are now under implementation.
In a state like Karnataka, experts have advocated for exploring conventional irrigation means to bring more agricultural land under irrigation especially since many of the state-approved irrigation projects have been stalled or are delayed.
As per the state official data, nearly 30% of the total farm land in Karnataka is currently under irrigation and new projects will cost nearly Rs 1.6 lakh crore to the state exchequer.
“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 NetBeatTM 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 characterized by a large number of small farmers,” Gaby Miodownik, President and CEO of Netafim said.
The various irrigation projects executed by Netafim across India till date has involved up to 202 villages, over 97,000 farmers across 100,000 hectares (247,105 acres) area.