Press Release: AgTech Company N-Drip to Assist in Corporate Water Replenishment Projects

Program is the first of its kind, with data centers, local farmers and N-Drip joining together to build water resilience in their communities

N-Drip, the AgTech company with a revolutionary approach to irrigation, has announced its entry into a new business area: Replenishing water used in water-cooled data centers by partnering with nearby farmers using N-Drip technology. Google is now using the new N-Drip agriculture-based water replenishment service in Nebraska. The N-Drip program will support Google’s goal to replenish 120% of the freshwater it consumes, on average, across its offices and data centers.

Due to the growth of cloud-based computing, the rise of AI, and organic growth of the data center industry, the opportunity is significant. The average water-cooled data center uses about 550,000 gallons of fresh water every day, or over 200 million gallons per year.

“Data center operators are trying to find ways to replenish the water they use, especially those in water-insecure and water-scarce locations,” said Eran Pollak, N-Drip’s CEO. “N-Drip creates a bridge between the data center and the local farmers, providing the option of replenishing huge quantities of water in a cost-effective way that improves the long-term health of the watershed in which the data center is located. By partnering with local farmers, N-Drip is able to directly support companies’ water replenishment goals. ”

Since its creation in 2017, N-Drip has worked with farmers using the company’s patented technology to transform water-wasting, unsustainable flood-irrigated fields into water-sipping, gravity-powered drip-irrigated farms. N-Drip technology is now an ever more popular choice of farmers in ten countries and five US states and on 25 different types of crops, including rice, corn, soybeans, potatoes, sugar cane, alfalfa and cotton.

Worldwide, there are more than 600 million acres of flood irrigation, or 85 percent of all irrigated fields. Even in the US, with its advanced farming techniques, there are 21.5 million acres, or 40% of national irrigation, that use flood irrigation. “In every case,” said Professor Uri Shani, N-Drip’s founder and Chief Technology Officer, “this wastes water, suppresses yields, adds to water contamination and increases the amount of greenhouse gas released into the environment. But the near-universal presence of flood irrigation near many data centers also creates an opportunity for data center operators eager to replenish the water they are using.”

One example of the new N-Drip effort to assist with corporate water replenishment projects is their latest collaboration with Google. As with other water-cooled data centers, Google’s data center in Papillion, Nebraska, makes use of local water. Google is working with N-Drip to enable farmers in the Platte River Basin to convert their corn and soybean fields from flood irrigation to N-Drip’s gravity-powered micro-irrigation system. This will conserve groundwater resources and increase yields. By reducing the need to pump water, N-Drip’s gravity-powered technology also lowers energy consumption and carbon emissions.

“Farmers,” said N-Drip CEO Pollak, “are happy to sign up for programs like the Google program, among others. They depend on water availability and, by tradition and necessity, always try to be as efficient as possible.”

Pollak added: “By participating in an N-Drip-managed water replenishment program, farmers not only save water and increase their farm income with higher yields and less need for fertilizer, but they also get technology installed that helps provide the most precise support in decision making for things like analyzing how a crop is coming in and when to harvest. N-Drip’s mission is to provide farmers the tools that helps them to best manage essential resources like water, nutrients, and labor.”

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About N-Drip
Currently doing business in 10 countries and five US states, N-Drip’s three main business hubs are Australia, India, and the US. The company’s U.S. operations are headquartered in Arizona. With more than 100 current employees engaged in sales, R&D, manufacturing, and engineering, among other functions, the company has experienced growth in staff, manufacturing, distribution, and revenue in every quarter since it began deploying the gravity-powered irrigation methodology in 2019.

N-Drip’s Founder and Chairman is Professor Uri Shani, formerly head of the Israel Water Authority. CEO Eran Pollak served as senior director of the budget division in the Israel Ministry of Finance. Both are based in the company’s headquarters located in Kfar Saba, Israel.

For more information about N-Drip’s data center replenishment program, please contact Chief Sustainability Officer Seth Siegel at seth@ndrip.com.