Bayer and Orbia Netafim strengthen ties to advance digital agritech

Orbia’s Precision Agriculture business Netafim, along with Bayer recently began their expansion, starting with new digital farming solutions for fruit and vegetable growers

The new solutions aim to help growers maximise crop production and optimise their use of resources, thus minimising the impact on the environment. Although the adoption of digital tools has increased in recent years, those currently available in horticulture are not addressing growers' needs holistically. For instance, switching between multiple software applications has proved challenging and the siloed nature of today's solutions is making daily activities more complex.

Therefore, in order to simplify primary data collection and sharing for the cultivation of fruits and vegetables, Bayer, as part of its collaboration has developed a new digital platform called HortiView that enables growers to benefit from an ecosystem of connected agronomic services that support data-driven decisions and market access.

Orbita Netafim has simultaneously developed irrigation insights that will be available through HortView's platform. These irrigation recommendations with be generated to uniquely cater to each grower based on the primary data provided by them in HortiView. Orbia Netafim's all-in-one irrigation operating system called GrowSphere features optimised irrigation, crop protection, and fertigation applications. The collaboration will also expand to include this operating system. These new solutions are already in use by some grower advisors, who are providing feedback to ensure broader availability in the future. 

Ofer Oveed, SVP Technology and Crops at Orbia Precision Agriculture (Netafim) expressed his delight to be collaborating with Bayer on combining their agronomic and technological expertise. "By leading the digital farming revolution together, we can deliver food security through sustainable agriculture,” said Oveed.