Benefits of Protected Agriculture

Despite the cold weather over the next few months, food must still be grown. The colder months in locations with extreme climates have traditionally presented monumental, if not impossible challenges for farmers, heavily restricting their ability to cultivate and harvest crops. Orbia 's Precision Agriculture business, Netafim USA , offers a solution that extends the growing season and allows farmers to farm in areas where traditional farming wouldn’t be possible.

Commercial greenhouse projects are also a response to increasing food insecurity, as greenhouses produce yields eight to ten times higher than open-field farming. Investing in a greenhouse structure brings long-term results to farmers and local communities. Here are two primary benefits of protected agriculture that Gakon Netafim’s technology provides.

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1. Year-round growing season

The biggest way to expand profits for farmers is to make the growing season as long as possible. Growing crops in greenhouses allows farmers to grow all year round rather than seasonally. This provides immense benefits to not only farmers but their entire surrounding community.

Protected agriculture structures create the perfect growing conditions to grow crops faster and more efficiently year-round. Our team identifies which systems and technology to implement in your greenhouse based on the various unique factors of each project including crop, location, available energy sources, and market conditions. Greenhouse structures offer communities the luxury of fresh crops that are sustainably grown and at a manageable price point, improving a community’s overall health and well-being.

2. Reduced energy and water costs

Here at Netafim, we work to best use the resources we have and help growers implement sustainable practices. One way that our greenhouse technology puts this mission into action is through water and energy-saving features that our greenhouse structures provide.

Gakon Netafim - Greenhouse projects offers a variety of heating and cooling systems, depending on your project, that create optimal energy production conditions for the facility in a sustainable way. An example of this is the use of our blackout screens in greenhouses, which reduce energy costs by up to 50%. We also use roof structures and floating solar panels in water basins to collect water to be used for the greenhouse structure’s irrigation needs. Depending on rain and snowfall, these roof structures can collect enough water to meet 50% of the facility’s irrigation needs. Growing produce in protected agriculture structures not only benefits farmers and the local community, but it also has a positive environmental impact that benefits the entire globe. ?

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Our Work in Action

Our work with Vermillion Growers in Dauphin, Canada showcases these benefits and our work in action. Our team partnered with Vermillion Growers to develop, construct, and execute the first state-of-the-art greenhouse in Manitoba, which opened in July 2023. The greenhouse grows millions of pounds of fresh tomatoes, available year-round for consumers just days after harvest. This is particularly impactful for Dauphin’s remote community, where temperatures consistently dip below zero degrees Fahrenheit during the winter months and open-field farming is not an option. In addition to year-round fresh produce at a profitable price point, the protected agriculture structure uses Gakon Netafim’s technology to reduce water and energy costs by 50%. We are ecstatic about the success of the Vermillion Grower’s 10-acre greenhouse and are excited about the upcoming expansion to 70 acres.

Successes like Vermillion Growers come from our team’s three-pronged approach of expertise: irrigation experts in Israel, greenhouse experts in the Netherlands, and local experts from Netafim USA and Canada. These local experts know their community and the unique circumstances and conditions of your project and can provide the best solutions for success. Our team understands that different locations, climates, and crops require different technologies and processes to give plants the best growing conditions possible. With various options for greenhouse structures, climate-control systems, and water and energy systems, we guide partners through every step of the process to create perfect growing conditions in the greenhouse structure.