SCLGLinkJune2016 | Page 11

Retail GRUNDFOS REFLECTS ON SOLAR TECHNOLOGY FOR IRRIGATION AND THUS FOOD PRODUCTION G rundfos, the award-winning world leader in pump manufacturing, has long been a strong global advocate of water efficiency. Access to safe water is one of the greatest challenges in the world, which will only increase in line with the growing climate changes. Today 1 billion people are without access to safe water and more people will suffer. Fasting during Ramadan enables us to think about what life is like for people in countries who do not have sufficient food or safe drinking water. As the worldwide demand for food is expected to rise, there are countries that have been unable to sustain agricultural crops, because of the non-availability of sufficient power for irrigation, as well as climate changes causing the shortage of rainfall. With global urbanization and population increases, the demand for electricity is increasing day by day, even society is trying to apply energy efficient solutions. For many nations to cope with the demand and provide enough electricity for irrigation is a great challenge. Farmers are forced to look into other options, i.e. using diesel generators for running their water pumps. This requires continuously operational attendance and is not considered the best sustainable solution and at the same time increases substantially the cost of pumping water to irrigate crops. Grundfos solar solutions can help meeting this challenge. Grundfos’ new and extended power range of solar solutions for water pumps used in irrigation are providing significant improvements to the agricultural sector. It will allow societies and farmers to increase capacity of water for food production not relying on public electricity or fuel and systems required far less operational maintenance. By this additional food security can be gained in many areas. Fertilizers often being the biggest cost in agriculture, Grundfos smart digital pumps help to optimize the cost of their usage through the precise dosing of these fertilizers in the ‘fertigation’ News process. Fertigation, as the name implies, is the process by which fertilizers are applied  with the irrigation water. The fertilizer solutions are prepared in advance in stock tanks and the solution is then injected into the irrigation water. Over-usage of fertilizers leads to money wastage and under-usage leads to lower yield. Grundfos smart digital pumps balances this by dosing only what is required. “It is well known that we want to deliver the world to the next generation in a better state than we inherited it, and solar solutions and other smart technologies like Digital Dosing will help society in that direction,” commented Henning Sandager Andersen, Area Managing Director, Middle East & Turkey. We contribute to global sustainability by pioneering technologies that improve the quality of life for people and care for the planet. Working towards a positive impact lies deep within our existence and our purpose as a business.” BENQ DOUBLES ITS MIDDLE EAST MARKET SHARE IN Q1’16 Highlights: •