Agriculture, which consumes about 70% of worldwide freshwater, is grappling with elevated water shortage and inefficient irrigation methods. Conventional strategies of irrigation not solely result in wasted water and vitamins, but additionally contribute to decrease crop yields, meals insecurity, and pointless carbon emissions.
Hong-Kong based mostly agriculture expertise startup Full Nature Farms thinks there’s a greater manner. At CES 2025, the corporate launched its Rocket 2.0 Good Irrigation Platform, a system that makes use of knowledge and AI to create a 30% discount in water prices, scale back vitality consumption, and enhance crop yields.
CEO Ray Lok based Full Nature Farms in 2019. Earlier than that, he based Evergreens Republic, a USDA-certified natural industrial aquaponics farm for sustainable farming that garnered consideration from actual property builders and authorities workplaces searching for options for restricted arable land.
Used for vertical farming, open area farming, greenscaping, and extra, Rocket 2.0 is a standalone irrigation system that integrates sensors measuring crop yield, soil well being, and local weather with AI and climate forecasts to ship exact, automated irrigation management on a schedule. The Rocket 2.0 guarantees to be a disruptive breakthrough in industrial farming operations, from landscaping and parks to neighborhood farms and vineyards.
And it might need the capability to really scale based mostly on Full Nature Farms’ pricing construction.
“We provide farmers the chance to make use of our product by way of a subscription payment starting from 10.00 to twenty.00 USD per 30 days per sensor, with no upfront prices,” Lok instructed TechCrunch by way of e mail. “This eliminates obstacles to entry and permits us to supply a scalable and inexpensive sensible irrigation answer for each farmers and operators.”
Full Nature Farms says its aggressive benefit lies in its in-house-developed tech ecosystem, which incorporates automation controllers and software program, LED develop lights, precision develop pipes, a sensor stack, and an built-in farm administration platform.
The startup, which has raised roughly $4.5 million, has made a reputation for itself in its hometown of Hong Kong, the place it makes use of sensible agtech merchandise to domesticate crops like edible flowers and microgreens for greater than 100 Michelin-starred eating places and resort teams. Right now, Full Nature Farms’ merchandise — together with its Eden 2.0 cultivation system with sensors, LED develop lights, and automatic controls — are being carried out throughout Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, and the U.Ok., however the startup hopes to broaden its presence to North America. At CES, it will likely be scouting for 30 native companions to check Rocket 2.0.
Particularly, the Rocket 1.0 has been deployed for testing in Hong Kong since January 2024, and the startup has secured 12 initiatives within the metropolis to be deployed within the first quarter of 2025. Full Nature Farms additionally has plans for pilot initiatives in Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, Australia, France, and China.
Full Nature Farms’ debut of its newest agtech product earned it the CES 2025 Innovation Award within the Sustainability and Vitality/Energy class, and it comes as funding to the sector has seen a rebound from lows in 2023 and early 2024, per PitchBook knowledge.
This text was up to date with extra data from Full Nature Farms.
