The technology is expected to reduce agriculture's environmental impact from groundwater contamination, air pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as greatly improve crop quantity, quality, and shelf life, which will benefit both growers and consumers.
DOTS has received $500,000 from the Israel Innovation Authority, as well as $1.2 million from Labs/02, whose investors include OurCrowd and the giant Indian business Reliance Industries. The company is preparing to raise additional funds to support the product's development and launch. DOTS is starting with the irrigated agriculture sector, which is estimated to be worth $25 billion. Among other benefits, the technology is expected to increase farmers' profitability by tens of percent and to support global efforts to sustain water resources and prevent groundwater pollution.
DOTS is forming alliances with significant European and American corporations that want to use the technology to improve fertilizer application, save money, and reduce agriculture's negative impact on water supplies and public health. DOTS detects and monitors soil fertilization levels, allowing for precise timing of fertilization cycles and preventing fertilizer excess. When compared to routine laboratory testing, the sensor's accuracy is greater than 92%. Furthermore, a series of successful studies in Israeli tomato greenhouses indicated fertilizer savings of 30% during the growing season, with no adverse effects on the produce.
Nitrate is a beneficial feature. (for soil to possess) .Prof. Ofer Dahan, Dr. Elad Yeshno of the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research, and Prof. Shlomi Arnon of Ben-Gurion University's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering developed the technique during a seven-year period. They created a one-of-a-kind system based on algorithmically driven spectrum analysis that allows for continuous and real-time assessment of nitrate levels in soil. Nitrate is an important nutrient for plant growth and is used extensively in agriculture for fertilization. It is one of the nitrogen forms that plants may absorb and use to make proteins, nucleic acids, and other important chemicals.
However, excessive nitrate in soil can have a number of detrimental effects on the environment and human health, thus the development of monitoring solutions has become an essential component of farmers' toolkits. "The impact of fertilizers on crop quality and quantity, combined with a lack of technology for continuous fertilizer monitoring in the soil, has led the agricultural industry to a 'better safe than sorry' policy in an effort to prevent nutrient deficiencies and crop loss," Rafi Levi, cofounder and CEO of DOTS, explained.
"This process results in significant capital losses for farmers as well as significant environmental damage in the form of groundwater contamination and, equally serious, significant greenhouse gas emissions." (both CO2 and N2O). This is a significant global issue that endangers both the environment and human health." The DOTS system provides a highly detailed, dynamic picture of nitrate concentrations in the root zone, and the company's system will eventually interface with farmers' fertilization and irrigation controllers, allowing for fully automated fertilization based on real-time nitrate measurements.
Yeshno, DOTS's cofounder and CTO, emphasized the technology as a solution to the problem of nutrient pollution. "Over the years, no practical and cost-effective technology for measuring the amount of fertilizer in the soil has been discovered." Furthermore, the European Union considers nitrate pollution to be an immediate threat to water resources and has created a Nitrates Directive to address the issue and limit fertilizer misuse in agriculture.
As a result, environmental organizations such as the US EPA, governments worldwide, and important organizations such as the United Nations and the European Union require an effective instrument to reduce excessive fertilization during agricultural activities," he stated. "We intend to act at all levels to demonstrate to legislators and regulators the capabilities of our new and groundbreaking tool, which achieves optimal fertilizer application at minimal cost, thereby significantly reducing agricultural pollution," Yeshno added.
