Kingenta Group Partners with Irrigation Companies, Fertilizer Enterprise Crosses Boundaries to Achieve 1+1
Beijing, July 31, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Recently, Kingenta Group signed cooperation agreements with Israel's Rivulis Irrigation Company, Xinjiang Tianye Water Saving Irrigation Co., Ltd., Inner Mongolia Muhe Water Saving Engineering Equipment Co., Ltd., and Shanghai Huawei Water Saving Irrigation Co., Ltd., among others, to leverage each party's combined resources, technology, and services, and jointly commit to promoting advanced drip irrigation equipment and integrated water and fertilizer technology. This is the first time a Chinese fertilizer manufacturer has crossed boundaries to "partner" with irrigation companies. It is an innovation in thinking that finally breaks down the industry boundary between agriculture and water conservancy, allowing all parties to jointly promote integrated water and fertilizer management.
Combining Fertilization with Irrigation Is an Innovation in Thinking
Zhu Yundi, Operations Director of Rivulis China, believes that irrigation and fertilizer companies joining forces is an innovation. Although abroad these two are integrated, in China, this signing of cooperation with Kingenta Group truly brings irrigation and fertilizer companies together, opening a new model in China that will be more conducive to the development of integrated water and fertilizer management in China.
Rivulis has promoted integrated water and fertilizer management in Israel and globally for over 50 years, and in China for nearly 20 years. Integrated water and fertilizer management is the direction of modern agriculture, but China has had many failed lessons in promoting it. Most of these lessons come from poor-quality irrigation products and fertilizers, as well as improper system design and operation. Previously, many users hoped we would recommend water-soluble fertilizer products, but water-soluble fertilizers from abroad often had very high prices, exceeding what some users could afford. Therefore, integrated water and fertilizer management requires high-quality irrigation products and high-quality soluble fertilizers. Now that Kingenta can produce water-soluble fertilizer domestically, it will undoubtedly bring tangible benefits to users. Rivulis's high-quality irrigation products combined with Kingenta's high-quality soluble fertilizers will push China's integrated water and fertilizer management to a higher level.
Growers Will Fall in Love with Integrated Water and Fertilizer Management
Lv Mingli, Chairman of Shanghai Huawei Water Saving Irrigation Co., Ltd., stated that as the saying goes, "roots are the mouth of crops, and water is the legs of fertilizer," but in our country there exists a situation of "fertilizer is fertilizer, water is water." This not only reduces fertilizer utilization efficiency and increases costs, but also causes non-point source pollution. Therefore, this strategic cooperation between Shanghai Huawei and Kingenta, achieving the integration of irrigation and fertilizer and implementing precise integrated water and fertilizer management, is a very good combination.
If an irrigation system is only used for watering, its function is only 40% utilized, but if fertilizer is applied with the water, it can achieve 100% of its efficacy. In recent years, drip irrigation companies and fertilizer companies have engaged in some cooperation, but some ordinary compound fertilizers have poor solubility, easily forming crystals, clogging flow channels, and causing negative effects from improper use. Therefore, drip irrigation systems also very much hope to find fertilizers that do not cause clogging, are weakly acidic, and are fully water-soluble. This time, truly entering into strategic cooperation with a large fertilizer enterprise like Kingenta can precisely achieve this effect. Both companies promoting drip irrigation systems and high-end water-soluble fertilizers within each other's customer networks is a first, and also a remarkable feat.
At a large strawberry grower's operation in Jiading District, Shanghai, we found they were still using Venturi tubes and other methods to apply high-end water-soluble fertilizers. When they learned about drip irrigation systems, they were very surprised, saying, "There is actually such a system in the world that can automatically let water and fertilizer flow to the crop roots? That is truly amazing!" Therefore, users' concepts and awareness still need further improvement, and this is also a market space we can further develop.
Shanghai Huawei has high visibility in the field of cash crop irrigation and also has a training institution called "Huawei Academy." Kingenta Group is a leading enterprise in water-soluble fertilizer production and has a comprehensive service network in agrochemical services and training. We hope that through both parties' service networks and training, the market will understand and accept integrated water and fertilizer management and fall in love with this revolutionary agricultural production technology. Such strategic cooperation will not only support both companies' businesses, but will also reduce growers' irrigation and fertilization costs and accelerate China's progress toward integrated water and fertilizer management.
300,000 Tons Is Not Too Much, but Not Enough
Chai Fujun, Chief Engineer of Inner Mongolia Muhe Water Saving Engineering Equipment Co., Ltd., stated that as an irrigation enterprise, forming a close cooperative relationship with a fertilizer enterprise like Kingenta is unprecedented.
In fact, from the equipment perspective, irrigation technology and systems, in addition to saving water, can also achieve integrated water and fertilizer management. Irrigation projects have been invested in, and we hope to maximize benefits. In the past, only water was dripped, and nutrient benefits were not realized. Now Kingenta combining with irrigation enterprises can be said to be mutually beneficial. From a market perspective, users' water and fertilizer usage costs will decrease, and as both parties adapt and cooperate, a win-win situation will certainly be achieved.
This signing of cooperation between both parties can be described as "mutual distributors." Both sides have distributor service teams. If through appropriate training, distributors and service teams can understand both irrigation knowledge and integrated water and fertilizer knowledge, they can combine the two during service, making service to farmers more thorough and convenient. I believe fertilizer sales mainly depend on volume, achieving small profits but quick turnover. Fertilizer sales growth mainly depends on reputation and after-sales service like Haier's. Against the backdrop of the state vigorously promoting integrated water and fertilizer management, the combination of fertilizer and irrigation enterprises can not only reduce irrigation and fertilization costs but also benefit farmers.
To be honest, if integrated water and fertilizer management is widely promoted, an annual production scale of 300,000 tons of water-soluble fertilizer is not too large, but far from enough. China has a large irrigation area, and the irrigation area is still increasing every year. To give a simple example, if 50 jin of fertilizer is applied per mu (generally the application rate is 100 jin). Xinjiang has 30 million mu of irrigated area in operation each year, and the national irrigated area in operation is 70 million mu. If calculated based on 50 million mu using integrated water and fertilizer technology, the annual demand for water-soluble fertilizer is 1.25 million tons. Adding the newly added irrigated area each year, Kingenta's 300,000-ton water-soluble fertilizer production capacity is not too large, but far from enough.
Xinjiang Uses 2.4 Million Tons of Water-Soluble Fertilizer Annually
Shao Maoxu, Deputy General Manager of Xinjiang Tianye Water Saving Irrigation Co., Ltd., stated that of China's 900 million mu of irrigated area, about 480 million mu of cultivated land is suitable for developing integrated water and fertilizer management, but the current application rate is only 3.2%. Currently, the application area of integrated water and fertilizer technology in China has reached 20.67 billion sq m. By 2015, the total promotion area of integrated water and fertilizer technology will reach over 53.36 billion sq m. At present, Xinjiang has become one of the regions in China with the widest scope, largest area, and fastest development in applying water-saving drip irrigation technology in field agricultural production, becoming a model for the technical application of agricultural water-saving drip irrigation in China. Xinjiang's annual usage of dedicated water-soluble fertilizer for drip irrigation is approximately 2.4 million tons. The Shihezi reclamation area alone uses over 300,000 tons annually, of which the annual water-soluble fertilizer usage from 2011 to 2013 reached 380,000 tons.
Integrated irrigation and water-fertilizer management has encountered some problems in promotion, including insufficient funds reducing the function and quality of trial drip irrigation projects, incomplete fertilization equipment functions making fertilization inconvenient, inadequate technical guidance and corresponding training, and a lack of high-end fully water-soluble fertilizers. This time, drip irrigation enterprises joining with water-soluble fertilizer enterprises precisely responds to practical needs and will further accelerate China's progress toward integrated water and fertilizer management.
Source: Kingenta Ecological Engineering Group Co., Ltd.