Client story
Client: Netafim | Industry: Sustainability
Working with Netafim to save 20% more water than standard irrigation
Climate change and a rapidly growing global population are driving an urgent need for water conservation.
Today, around half of the world’s population faces severe water scarcity for at least part of the year, and by 2050, over 5 billion people could struggle with inadequate water access. Agriculture sits at the heart of this challenge, consuming 70% of the world’s freshwater. As experts in deep tech innovation for sustainable solutions, we’re proud that our collaboration with the global leader in precision irrigation Netafim that makes a real impact—helping farmers worldwide grow more with less resources such as water and fertilizers.
While drip irrigation has long been recognized as an effective solution, its transformation into a high-tech solution has been hindered by cost, energy consumption, and long-term reliability concerns. Today, advancements in low-energy technology have made it possible to develop solutions that require minimal maintenance and intervention—critical needs across many industries. Additionally, ensuring reliability, durability, and cost-effectiveness has been a barrier to wider adoption, as systems must be robust and built to last.
In our collaboration with Netafim we respond to these challenges and work together to think of new solutions for drip irrigation with the potential to save 20% of water with this new technology.
Key benefits of Adaptive Drip
substantial water saving of 20%+ over existing optimised solutions
Capable of operating day-in-day-out for 15 years without maintenance
Improving fertiliser use efficiency by 30%
reducing energy consumption by 35%
Smart drip irrigation control
To cope with the challenging and complication nature of plumbing on farmland, some suppliers develop over-specified systems of large pumps and pipes that need regular maintenance. Instead, Netafim’s focus is on targeted zones – irrigating small blocks in rotation as required rather than flooding wider areas all at once. The company has also put the emphasis on easy installation, without the need for intermediaries or a specially trained workforce to implement and maintain the system.
Irrigation to maximise crop yield
Our novel smart technology has a network of sensors able to react to actual soil conditions. Water is only used when it’s needed, where it’s needed – a strategy that preserves resources while maximising crop yield. This enhanced approach also has a direct benefit on fertiliser, improving its efficiency by 30% and reducing the association energy consumption by up to 35%. Given the significant carbon footprint associated with fertiliser production and use – four per cent of global CO2 emissions – this unique form of drip irrigation has huge sustainability potential.
With no relevant off-the-shelf technologies available, our solution had to be built from first principles. Initially, we had to understand how to minimise the power required to communicate to the devices. Then the task was to develop electronics with incredibly low power consumption. The third step was to design an enclosure that would ensure reliable operation for such a long time. This meant maintaining robust separation of ‘wet’ areas of operation – valves – from the ‘dry’ electronics and optics.
“We are happy to collaborate with the CC team to fight water scarcity. The relationship flourished during the arc of the project, and we are delighted with the results and that trials are now well underway.”
Multidisciplinary deep tech consultants
This unique, multifaceted challenge required the sort of multidisciplinary execution that only CC can deliver. It suited our diverse set of skills, from sensing and low power operation to optical communication, embedded software and mechanical design. With everything inhouse, project team and client had direct access to colleagues as needed. The process benefited from rapid exploration and application of relevant technologies at each turn, maintaining momentum to deliver the optimum overall technical solution.
Close collaboration throughout the project engendered mutual trust, as the CC and Netafim teams complemented each other’s skills. Our client has deep engineering knowledge and experience of what it takes to make a successful product. We added expertise in electronics, firmware, optics design and the production side of building electronics.
The breakthrough architecture to deliver the ultra-low power, scalable system at an achievable price point called for expert prototype production and quick iterations between any design modifications. Our inhouse electronic production department (EPD) built thousands of units for initial Netafim field trials, with each unit tested and subject to rigorous quality control before being shipped to the test location. This dedicated facilities and expertise covers all aspects of circuit board design, development and manufacture.
Scalability for ultra-low power and future proof design
Getting everything onto the micro controllers was a key challenge. Our embedded software team architected a protocol for a network consisting of thousands of nodes, but they also had to ensure that it delivered the scalability for ultra-low power.
Given the long product lifetime and underground inaccessibility, the system allows for additional functionality to be included as digital farming advances, future proofing Netafim customers and delivering opportunities for new revenue streams to Netafim.
By considering the future ambitions of Netafim’s digital farming platform, the CC team designed a holistic system with great flexibility to realise future services. And that future looks good. Following production runs, units have been constructed, and field trials are well underway, with a product launch date scheduled for the end of 2025.
“CC had the specific range of technical expertise and inhouse facilities all in one place. Their deep expertise in electronics, firmware and optics dovetailed perfectly with our core strengths.”
Niall Mottram
VP, Agritech
“This is a truly ‘generational’ project in its societal impact, all under pinned by remarkable low energy communication technology – 15 year operation on two non-rechargeable AA cells has impressive cross-industry IoT implications.”
Damien Cosgrove
Project Manager
“This project ticked all the boxes – the sustainability focus of growing more while saving water resources, plus technology challenges and a strong complementary and trusting relationship.”
Simon Jordan
Technical Authority
“It was a big challenge to achieve both very high reliability and long battery life within a tight product cost budget. This took novel circuit design ideas and rigorous validation to ensure they stood up in the real world.”
Emma Lewis
Applied Science Business Leader
“The devil was in the detail for the optics – an outwardly simple system that we pushed to the limit within the power and cost constraints, requiring a good deal of care in parameter choices and component selection.”
James Buckley
Senior Consultant, Electronics and Software
“We pushed the limits of electronics in doing more with less. On the communications side, the network formed by device nodes has impressive scalability and latency given the system topology and extremely low-power budget.”
