Precision agriculture | Irrigation technology
Recognition follows the Southern and East African launch of NetaJet™ 5G, powered by GrowSphere™ technology.
Netafim’s Dosing 5G portfolio has been named “Precision Fertilisation Solution of the Year” in the 2026 AgTech Breakthrough Awards. The recognition follows the launch of NetaJet™ 5G in the Southern and East African market.
The AgTech Breakthrough Awards evaluate technologies contributing to digital transformation across the agricultural and food-production value chain. According to the award programme, input efficiency and fertigation were prominent themes among this year’s entries.
Moving beyond conventional fertiliser dosing
Fertiliser is one of the most costly and constrained inputs on many farms. Conventional dosing systems can be reactive and dependent on operator input, often requiring manual calibration and struggling to remain stable as field conditions change. The result may be nutrient waste, inconsistent crop performance and higher production costs.
Netafim’s Dosing 5G approach treats fertigation as an optimisation process, rather than simply a task of injecting fertiliser into irrigation water. The portfolio is designed to coordinate water and nutrient delivery while reducing the amount of manual intervention required from the grower or operator.
The technology continuously analyses hydraulic and agronomic parameters, including flow, pressure, electrical conductivity (EC) and pH. It can then adjust water and nutrient delivery during each irrigation cycle to help maintain stable and accurate conditions.
A connected workflow through GrowSphere™
Through integration with the GrowSphere™ platform, irrigation and fertigation activities can be brought together in one digital workflow. This enables growers to plan, manage and validate irrigation and nutrient applications within a connected environment.
The system’s self-learning capabilities are intended to help farms respond to changing crop requirements and field conditions. Remote control and real-time monitoring can also support faster operational decisions where managers need visibility across several production areas.
“Dosing 5G reflects our commitment to delivering intelligent, comprehensive solutions that help farmers make better decisions, improve performance and farm more sustainably,” said Ofer Oveed, Vice President: Technologies & Crops at Orbia Netafim.
Local testing and dealer training
Netafim Southern & East Africa places emphasis on testing technologies under local conditions before introducing them to the market. The NetaJet™ 5G launch followed approximately two years of field testing and was supported by dedicated dealer training.
The training equipped irrigation suppliers and dealers to support farmers in applying the technology effectively. This is important because the performance of any fertigation system depends not only on equipment, but also on system design, calibration, operation, maintenance and interpretation of field data.
GrowSphere™ was launched in the Southern and East African market in 2024 and has since been used across farms, crops and production scales in the region. The locally available fertigation offering has also expanded from the previous generation of systems.
“We recently launched the NetaJet™ 5G, which incorporates the new and advanced injection technology,” explained Nickie Theron, Netafim Southern & East Africa Product Manager: Digital Farming. “The fertiliser injection method used by Dosing 5G solutions is a game changer that is linked to AI-driven learning and precise fertigation injection.”
Michael Esmeraldo, Managing Director of Netafim Southern & East Africa, described the award as another step in the company’s programme of continuous innovation. “We continue to work hard to develop advanced solutions and intelligent practices that will help farmers grow more with less,” he said.
What the award means for growers
For growers, the significance of the award is less about the title itself and more about the direction it reflects: precision agriculture is increasingly focused on improving input efficiency, consistency and decision-making.
A fertigation system should be assessed against the needs of each farm. Water quality, crop type, soil characteristics, irrigation design, fertiliser compatibility, pressure stability, operator skills and maintenance capacity all influence the results that can be achieved. Farmers and irrigation suppliers should therefore evaluate available Dosing 5G solutions with a qualified Netafim representative and consider how the technology would fit their existing irrigation and farm-management practices.
The award provides international recognition for Netafim’s Dosing 5G portfolio, while the local NetaJet™ 5G launch demonstrates an effort to combine digital innovation with regional testing and dealer capability. For farms seeking more controlled fertigation, the development points towards a future in which nutrient delivery is increasingly monitored, adaptive and connected.
Source: This article is based on a press release supplied by Orbia Precision Agriculture (Netafim). Product names and quoted statements have been retained from the supplied release; the material has been edited for clarity and website presentation.
Media contact: Marike Brits, Communications Specialist, South Africa —
Further information: Netafim South Africa | Orbia.
_large.jpg)
