Drip Irrigation for Sustainable Water Management and Food Resilience in Azerbaijan
Precision creates the benefits of Pipelife drip irrigation systems in agriculture: The aim of this irrigation solution is largely to safeguard and improve the production of food and raw materials (e.g. cotton) while saving on precious resources (water, nutrients) and creating independency from weather conditions. Rather than applying water intense and soil harming flood irrigation, row crops are drip fed with a tailored quantity of water and nutrients with clockwork timing and precision.
As worldwide largest consumer of water, agriculture (foremost crop farming) is particularly sensitive to climate change induced weather extremes and dwindling water resources. More and more public bodies, as well as the agricultural sector itself, have recognized the potential of precision irrigation as one of the pillars of sustainable water resource management, which will safeguard and increase quality food supply in the long term.
Food producer in Azerbaijan opts for growth safety
With its Center of Irrigation Excellence in Turkey, Pipelife supports this necessary trend of switching to sustainable crop growth by offering complete drip irrigation systems from source to plant including design, know-how and support on every step of the way. "Alongside Turkey, our main market for irrigation, the entire region around the Black Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean increasingly benefits from Pipelife's complete irrigation solutions and over 40 years of know-how and expertise", explains Harald Schwarzmayr, CEO of Pipelife and continues "These markets are ready to switch to sustainable agriculture which in the long-term offers more economic and ecological resilience. A recent example is a large order from a customer in Azerbaijan." With crop growth safety and yield optimization in mind, this large-scale food producer invested in Pipelife precision irrigation solutions.
Factory added to accommodate market needs
"Within only one-month lead time, we were able to design and supply a fully customized solution for the irrigation of almost 1,000 hectares of organic pomegranate orchards, tomato and cucumber fields", says General Manager of Pipelife Turkey, Yilmaz Korap. This is only possible with high production capacity and state-of-the-art production lines. Recognizing the growing importance of the sector and to best accommodate future market needs, Pipelife added a production facility closely to Nidge, Central Turkey, which went into production in 2020s first quarter. The factory is based on a modular building concept which will allow capacity increases in the future.
Economic resilience and environmental sustainability
"We believe that irrigation will play a crucial part for the economic development of the entire region. At the end of the day, our investment in furthering modern and reliable irrigation solutions and services in these markets will bring customers the long-term added value of economic resilience while addressing the challenges of climate change", adds Doris Strohmaier, Chief Operating Officer for Central Europe and the Balkans.
