February 12, 2016
With severe and unpredictable weather patterns on the increase worldwide, scaling up our projects has relied on us overcoming the very real challenges of a changing climate. With experts at the COP21 United Nations Climate Summit and the World Economic Forum adding credence to the debate, political and financial leaders around the world have begun to take appropriate action. We, as an organization at the heart of agricultural production, have faced the tangible effects of climate change on our projects since inception, and we continue to invest heavily in their solutions to this day. While we are proud to announce the accelerated levels of productivity achieved on our plantations, we know that these challenges and others will need to be negotiated throughout the implementation stages and we continue to be as resolute as ever.
As we look to the future, we, along with all agricultural management companies, must prepare ourselves for an uncertain global climate. With fluctuating rainfall, severe droughts and an increasing unpredictability in water supplies, greater pressure will be placed on the world’s agricultural supply chain. To counter these changes and to meet ever more stringent licensing requirements, we have strengthened the infrastructure on our plantations beyond what was originally expected, through the development and expansion of our fertigation infrastructure and energy network.
Doubling the Capacity of Our Energy Network
With more land and variable climatic conditions comes a greater demand for energy. As energy use for growing and harvesting crops is a large component of farm operating costs, energy distribution infrastructure needs to be reliable and efficient at all times. We are therefore expanding our energy network to ensure that higher energy capacity is available across each sector of our plantations. By acquiring new generators and installing additional networks across the plantations, we will double our energy capacity, which will better prepare us for the uncertain climate ahead. This added capacity ensures that a sufficient level of energy is utilized across all sectors of our plantations, broadening the reach of our newly constructed pump house for crop care and protection.
Extending the Scope of our Irrigation and Fertigation Systems
Hydration and fertilization are two of the primary considerations for crop care in plantation management, even when conditions are perfect. Crop yields are affected by any fluctuations of temperature, wind and rainfall, as well as shifts in climate. As discussed in our recent forecast newsletter for 2016, this year will see one of the strongest El Niño events since 1950. This is expected to cause major disruptions, widespread droughts in some areas and severe flooding in others, across the continents. The El Niño of 1997 cost $100 billion in damages, a substantial amount of which was lost due to lower agricultural output. The upside is that these changes do have forecasters expecting a surge in global food prices, the downside is that they have also caused the need for us to further strengthen our water reserves and fertigation systems.
We continue to dig wells across our plantation that allow for the distribution of 12,000 liters of water per hour each
In order to ensure the precise, effective and efficient distribution of water and fertilizers across our plantations, enabled by the expansion of our energy network, we have acquired an additional two new Netafim fertigation kits for FLG. As specialists in irrigation technology, Netafim offers an expertise in agricultural crop care that we utilize to this day. These “Fertikits” will be housed in the central sector of the plantation and boost our already expansive irrigation network. Similarly to their predecessors, these Fertikits allow for the release of specific amounts and concentrations of water and fertilizer for our crops. This is the most accurate and reliable system for irrigation on the market, largely due to the fact that it is customizable and can work independently of field conditions.
Finalizing A New Control Center for Our Fertigation System
The specialists who are responsible for operating the state-of-the-art fertigation system will base their activities in a technical office and storage house being constructed at the heart of our plantations. For the time being, this office is being built adjoining our new pump house, with further plans in the pipeline for a specific technical and analysis office in the next phase of the project.
Construction on our new technical office is nearing completion
The development will serve as the hub for all operations related to irrigation and fertilization. This will also serve as a storage facility for our fertilizer supply modules and pump systems. This consists of six large tanks where the fertilizer is stored as well as an irrigation network that is controlled via Netafim terminals.
This phase of construction will be finished in early February allowing Electrovale, experts in Brazilian irrigation, to install all the pumps and tanks necessary for the expansion. Our new and upgraded system will be fully operational by March.
With the necessary infrastructure in place we are well on our way to beginning the next phase of planting neem on our plantations. As one of the most exciting stages of implementation, we will soon be providing you with a detailed update of the process involved in transporting and planting the first 50,000 saplings that are currently maturing in our nursery.
