Agriculture

Sustainable Agriculture

Sustainable Agriculture

Let’s change how the world grows food.

At Netafim, we have the technology, the know-how and the imagination to make agriculture sustainable. Together we can achieve a food-secure future.

Innovation in Agritech is Empowering Women in the Developing World.

See how

Time to rethink our Food System

Agriculture sustainability, environment, and nutrition are linked. To achieve ZERO HUNGER, we must rethink how we grow our food and its impact on the planet’s limited resources.  Precision irrigation helps farmers eliminate climate risks and make our food system more sustainable by enabling them to increase yields while using less water, fertilizer, energy, and crop protection.

Watch and learn how precision irrigation for sustainable agriculture can help farmers produce more food per hectare of land.

Three major impacts of precision irrigation

We’re facing three crucial challenges. Each one of these challenges is essential to the future of the planet – that’s why precision irrigation exists. It tackles all three of them, by enabling farmers to grow higher yields of better quality with fewer resources.

Climate is changing. Farming must change too.

By 2050, we’ll need to grow 70% more food to feed the world’s growing population. We’ll have to cope with changing rainfall patterns and frequent droughts. If you want to win as a farmer you need to reduce your dependency on the weather and take an active countermeasure. Precision irrigation helps farmers become climate resilient and more sustainable. Controlling the amount of water given to the plant is critical for achieving optimal yields.

Watch how this grower went from risk to profit with drip irrigation
Making the Most of Available Land

Arable land is in short supply due to monoculture, soil erosion, climate change, and over-intensive farming. Deforestation is not the answer. Increasing yield per hectare, while protecting soil fertility, is a more sustainable approach. Precision irrigation enables farmers to grow on any topography, field shape, or size. It turns land unfit for growing  – arable. It gives plants more favorable growing conditions driving higher outputs, and enables multiple crop cycles per year.

See how drip irrigation enables farming in uneven topography
Managing Water Scarcity

With agriculture using 70% of the planet’s fresh water, and droughts becoming more frequent, water-efficient farming is a global priority. Precision irrigation helps farmers get the most out of every drop by growing more crops using limited water supplies. Drip irrigation also allows the usage of recycled and/or saline water. Crops receive the exact amount of water that they need, when and where they need it.  This increases water use efficiency by up to 50% compared to other irrigation methods.

Here’s why drip irrigation is a game-changer

Sustainability is not a choice, it’s a necessity

Sustainability is the understanding that the purpose of the corporation extends far beyond profit. At Netafim, we believe that our products, services and the way we conduct our business should serve the progress and wellbeing of our entire ecosystem and future generations.

We have a legacy of sustainable impact

We started out growing food in the Israeli desert where we had to use water sustainably. From this challenge, came an opportunity to fundamentally change how our food is grown around the world.  Or in other words: Sustainable agriculture. 

We aim to achieve sustainable impact not only through precision agriculture but also by being a driving force for prosperity in the communities in which we operate, and by conducting our day to day business in a responsible manner. We are proud to be part of the Orbia family of businesses, all united by a shared vision and a  commitment to advance life around the world.

"We used to say our business is irrigation and our commitment is to agriculture sustainability. Today, our business is sustainability.”

Naty Barak, Chief of sustainability, Netafim

Sustainability partners

We work with growers, companies, governments and aid organizations all over the world to make agriculture more profitable and sustainable. 

Sustainable agriculture development goals

Our sustainability action plan is aligned with the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which comprises 17 global goals supported by 169 targets. Right now, we’re making the biggest global impact by focusing on nine of those 17 goals:

"Producing food locally provides fresher food based on the need of the consumer, which decreases the supply chain, transportation costs, and carbon footprint."

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We help the world grow more with less

We know two things for a fact: We can’t count on the rain and we can’t continue irrigating the traditional way. What we can do is start practicing precision irrigation, everywhere.

Precision irrigation is all about helping farmers achieve higher yields, and better-quality crops, while using less water, fertilizer and energy. Regardless of the crop, climate, soil, or region, our mission is to empower men and women, smallholders and large farms, to grow more food using fewer resources.

Here’s why precision irrigation is a game changer for global food security

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Regenerative agriculture is the need of the hour

We need to grow food in a way that preserves the earth’s soil, rebuilds the natural ecosystem, protects biodiversity and helps reverse catastrophic climate change.  Getting started with regenerative agriculture requires efficient irrigation; making sure the soil is getting watered equitably and with little to no waste.  Whether it’s soil health, GHG emission reduction, carbon sequestration or water conservation, our precision irrigation solutions support both farming productivity goals and the soil’s needs.

Bringing Circularity to the forefront

We’re committed to Zero-Waste in Farming.  We acknowledge our responsibility to minimize the impact of plastic waste on the environment. It starts with our drip lines. “ReGen -Netafim Circularity" is our solution for collecting, recycling, and treating used irrigation driplines in a responsible way. This is circularity at its best and a win-win for farmers and  the environment.

Netafim is committed to using at least 45% recycled content in its global drip line manufacturing processes by 2030.

Learn about our circularity programs throughout the world

Zero-Waste in Farming
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Environmental agriculture sustainability

We’re committed to environmental sustainability in two important ways. First, by making precision irrigation the most effective way to grow, we’re empowering farmers to grow in a more sustainable way that’s also more profitable for them.

And second, we’re committed to running our own operations in more sustainable agriculture ways. That’s why we’re signatories of the UN’s CEO Water Mandate, and followers of the sustainable development goals outlined above.

LEARN ABOUT ORBIA'S COMMITTMENT TO SUSTAINABILITY

Our environmental policy

Our environmental policy starts with our supply process. We always take an eco-friendly approach to product design, use minimal resources in all manufacturing and supply chain operations, reuse and recycle, and responsibly manage waste to enable agriculture sustainability.

To do this, we document and address all environmental impacts at every stage of the supply process, while also complying with all environmental legislation and regulations wherever we operate.  

Additionally, we have Environment Supervisors at all our manufacturing plants, making sure we’re always implementing our environmental policy. We also deliver training programs to our people at all levels, so they’re fully aware of our policy and actively working towards it. Plus, we set goals, targets and timetables to help monitor, control and optimize our environmental performance.

Our key environmental practices include: 

  • Adherence to ISO Standard 14001 at key factories, with regular external audits and verifications on agriculture sustainability
  • Environmental Impact Assessments on all Netafim products, focused on the effects of water, chemical and power consumption during manufacture and use
  • Environmental Risk Assessments on the environmental impacts of our production operations on agriculture sustainability, from conservation and rehabilitation to waste management and pollution prevention

Download 2019 ESRS - Environmental & Social Review Summary

Social responsibility

We began as a group of farmers in the Negev desert, tackling an unpredictable climate and a volatile market. Precision irrigation made us realize the huge potential of empowered communities.

By actively seeking out partnerships with stakeholders, we can share and promote our public policy of sound environmental management. And by founding the Netafim Academy on agriculture sustainability, we can now reach out to existing and potential clients, helping them become more efficient and productive food producers.

Even in the harshest conditions and most challenging locations, we’ll strive to help communities of all sizes to prosper and flourish.

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Agriculture sustainability reporting

We’re big fans of transparency. That’s why we share all information, knowledge and experience openly and across multiple channels.

We also value transparency among our partners and associates. Qualities like openness and integrity help us build trust, which enables more productive collaboration. That in turn helps our partners and associates achieve greater success and generate more profit. The same goes for the suppliers, competitors and government agencies we do business with.

And when it comes to our own people, we promote and support them in every way possible to sustainable agriculture. While guaranteeing respect and equality, we work to attract, develop and retain talent wherever we find it. And of course, we ensure health, safety and human rights across the board.

To ensure we’re always making the most of corporate social sustainability, we also follow Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) principles. Netafim has published a GRI report every two years since 2011. We submit our Communication on Progress to the UN Global Compact LEAD every year. See our reports to get an overview of our recent performance.

DOWNLOAD ORBIA'S 2023 IMPACT REPORT

DOWNLOAD NETAFIM 2018-2019 SUSTAINABILITY REVIEW

DOWNLOAD ORBIA 2019 GRI REPORT

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Business Conduct Policies

Netafim on agriculture sustainability conducts its relations with integrity, responsibility, honesty, reliability and decency, while obeying local laws and following the rules of proper business behavior. This commitment applies to each and every one of the company’s employees and directors. We are all expected to maintain honest and moral behavior in our work practices by adhering to the Code in all our activities, whether internally with our colleagues, or externally with customers on agriculture sustainability, suppliers, partners, shareholders and all other Netafim stakeholders.

Netafim strives to ensure that we all constantly adhere to the following principles as specified in the Code.

Read Netafim's code

Water-use efficiency

Water scarcity has been the single biggest challenge for farmers around the world. From drought and drainage to lack of access to water reserves. Precision irrigation solves that problem by changing the way you use water – delivering higher and better yields than you’ve ever seen, with less. 

 

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Sustainable agriculture

Innovation by farmers, for farmers

The next 50 years of farming won’t be like the last 50. The agricultural sustainability system that served us until now needs to change. Growers need more control. We're farmers and innovators committed to bringing innovation to the marketplace, evolving together with our customers on sustainable agriculture.

About us