Innovation In Agriculture and the Story of DryGair

Thomas Robert Malthus said: “The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man”.

According to Malthus’ theory, the human population increases faster than food productivity. So eventually, humans will suffer from starvation. Malthus lived between the years 1766-1834. It’s more than 200 years later and we know this isn’t the case. In fact, during the last decade, we’ve seen a decrease in agricultural land use, and an increase in produce. This can only happen thanks to innovation in agriculture.

Innovation in Agriculture – From Research to Trade

There’s extensive R&D invested in the agricultural sector. Both governmental and private. Today’s agricultural technologies are technological, and require innovative ideas, experience, and understanding.

The R&D is done in academic and research centers, and encompasses various fields such as species, machinery, growing methods etc. These researchers contribute to the increase in production while reducing the costs per unit grown.

However, research centers usually don’t have the financial and management resources to market their products. It’s private companies that hold the advantage when marketing new products.

When approaching a new product there are a number of steps. The most relevant ones are:

Market research – What is the potential market? Is there a demand/need for the product? What will lead to purchase? What is the willingness to pay?
Trials – We have this great idea, but does it really work?
Market penetration – We have the results from the trial, and the confidence that it’s really a high-quality product. But now we need to sell it. The first step is to find a customer that is also a market leader.

DryGair’s Story

DryGair’s story is similar to what we described above. Our innovative solution was born in Volcani center – the Israeli Agricultural Research Center. Dr. Arbel approached DryGair’s engineers and offered to design a prototype for a trial.

The machine was sent to a greenhouse in the southern Israel for a trial – the data from the greenhouse’s climate control system was collected and analyzed by Dr. Arbel and the DryGair team.

The results were excellent: complete humidity control, within the optimal temperature range, while saving energy and increasing yields by 25%.

This first trial was not enough for DryGair, which led the company to conduct additional trials in different greenhouses, with different crops and climate conditions around the world.

All trials presented a saving in costs and an improvements to yield quality and quantities.

Today, DryGair is part of the growing protocol in a number of market-leading agricultural companies. It provides growers with better control, while improving the efficiency of the greenhouse, all with a quick return on investment.

DryGair uses its rich database and knowledge to assist growers to control the climate inside greenhouses. We continue to encourage innovation in the company.