Innovative digital solutions: The exciting partnership between Netafim and Bayer

Netafim, the world’s leading precision irrigation company and the precision agriculture arm of Orbia, and Bayer announced today the expansion of their strategic collaboration to provide innovative digital solutions for fruit and vegetable growers. The solutions offered by Bayer and Netafim are designed to help growers maximize crop yields and optimize resource use, thereby minimizing environmental impact. This will be achieved through simplifying the collection of primary data and developing a system capable of generating personalized recommendations from this data for growers.

While the adoption of digital tools has increased in recent years, the available tools in agriculture today do not provide a holistic solution to the needs of growers. Many fruit and vegetable growers face challenges when switching between multiple software applications, and the nature of the existing solutions often adds complexity to daily operations rather than streamlining them. As part of the expanded collaboration, Bayer developed a new digital platform called HortiView for collecting and sharing primary data in fruit and vegetable cultivation in a simple and clear manner. This platform enables growers to benefit from a connected system of agronomic services that support data-driven decision-making and provide access to the market.

At the same time, Netafim has developed irrigation insights and recommendations that will be available through the HortiView platform. Rather than a “one-size-fits-all” approach, personalized irrigation recommendations are uniquely created for each grower based on the primary data they provide in HortiView. The collaboration will also extend to connectivity with GrowSphere, an advanced digital farm management system that connects sensors in the field to the irrigation and fertilization systems. The system provides farmers with real-time feedback on soil and crop conditions, including irrigation monitoring, optimization, and external insights via the cloud-based system.

"Combining the Strengths of Both Companies"

"Digital technology offers tremendous value in agriculture, but these tools rarely work together, making it very difficult for growers to use their data in models that could help them improve and optimize crop production," said Chris Pienaar, Digital Agriculture Manager for Fruits and Vegetables at Bayer Crop Science. "Bayer and Netafim can address this need and provide growers with a platform that can generate personalized recommendations tailored to their unique environment, growing methods, and crops."

A pilot project has already begun in Mexico with a small group of growers using the new solutions and providing feedback that will inform wider availability in the future. By combining the strengths of both companies, Netafim and Bayer aim to benefit customers through primary data, helping them improve decision-making, maximize crop yields, reduce agricultural inputs, and increase operational efficiency.

The expanded collaboration builds on a long-standing relationship between Netafim and Bayer, with a history of successful cooperation in various activities, including the Better Life Farming initiative to support smallholders worldwide, a plant protection solution for almond growers in the U.S., and joint projects supporting the European Union’s Farm2Fork initiative.

In addition to their long history and efforts with fruit and vegetable growers through digital solutions, Bayer and Netafim will continue to explore how they can work together to promote better digital connectivity across all types of agriculture and connected value chains.

Ofer Oved, Senior Vice President of Technology and Agronomy at Netafim, said, "Netafim, operating at the forefront of agriculture in irrigation, plant protection, agronomy, and digital platforms, is proud to partner with Bayer. The combination of our agronomic and technological expertise with Bayer’s will help farmers around the world address today’s challenges, from climate change impacts to reducing production inputs. Together, by leading the digital agricultural revolution, we will promote food security through sustainable farming."