Aqua21 system could cuts costs and improve margins for agriculture
Water treatment technology innovator Aqua21 has announced plans to use its award-winning technology to benefit agriculture.
In a fast-moving agricultural supply chain, many crops need to be watered to order to promote growth at set times and meet supply deadlines. There are, for example, regimes for watering leaf products to optimise output volume and quality while keeping down production costs. But switching a water system in a remote location may not be logistically possible and clients often require bespoke regimes before delivery. This is costly – not to mention difficult to deliver.
Ozonation — a powerful, safe and reliable form of water disinfection — can deal with this problem at the point of use, immediately killing coliforms in the water and not only irrigating but disinfecting crops as they grow. In this way Aqua21 technology can not just optimise the agricultural water cycle but, through its disinfection properties, can offer an added commercial advantage for the crop seller and buyer.
This is a potentially a major boon to complex and demanding modern systems of irrigation, harvesting and crop cleaning — especially of expensive crops. It could also offer a financial boost to farmers where crops are marginal and yield is poor. And Aqua21 has proved that the science works through years of research and development. Now the company is discussing partnerships and planning (appropriately enough) field trials.
The next stage is to further reduce the size of the ozonation machines and manufacture them in volume, bringing prices down even further and offering farmers irrigation and disinfection from small, easily installed units.
Trevor Costello, co-founder, Aqua 21, says: “Modern farming has to be more efficient, more cost-effective and more responsive than ever, because margins are thinner than ever before. We can ensure that produce is clean, safe and ready when needed by our customers. We at Aqua21 believe we can offer farmers a system that gives them the edge they need in this highly demanding sector.”