“When we say agriculture, we think green and plants and land, it sounds very sexy. But the reality is that agriculture is one of the major contaminants in the world, both in terms of groundwater contamination and greenhouse gas emissions,” says Rafi Levi. “And fertilizers are the No. 1 contaminant in agriculture.”
Levi is the CEO and cofounder of DOTS (Data of the Soil), an Israeli startup bent on helping farmers cut down on the use of excess fertilizers by providing them with real-time monitoring of fertilizer in the soil.
This can save them a lot of money and, of course, protect the environment.
“DOTS was founded by two professors and one Ph.D. at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. The idea came up eight or nine years ago, when a student – today the PhD – began his MA and then his doctorate. Together with his professors, he wanted to examine how to reduce the pollution of groundwater,” Levi, the fourth cofounder, tells ISRAEL21c.
“The No. 1 contaminant of groundwater is excess fertilizer, which continuously leaches downward until it reaches the groundwater reservoirs,” he notes. “The reason for these excess fertilizers is that there’s no technology to continuously monitor their levels in the soil prior to each fertigation cycle.”
Keep reading at israel21c.org.
DOTS is an Israeli startup that helps farmers reduce excess fertilizer usage by providing them with real-time monitoring of fertilizer in soil. DOTS Co-founder and CEO Rafi Levi is a Technion alumnus.
More Protecting Our Planet stories
GreenOnyx Makes Eating Greens a No-Brainer
