Food and beverage giant PepsiCo and Israel-based drip irrigation technology provider N-Drip announced today a new partnership aimed at helping farmers globally adopt water saving, sustainable agriculture technology across 10,000 hectares by 2025.

N-Drip has developed a replacement for flood or trench irrigation techniques, which result in the losses of up to 70% of the water but are still used on 85% of all irrigated fields worldwide as alternatives to flood irrigation are too costly for many farmers.

N-Drip’s irrigation system is powered by gravity and harnesses water-saving benefits of high-pressure drip irrigation but with low energy, operating and maintenance demands, making it more accessible to farmers. According to PepsiCo, by converting from flood irrigation to N-Drip’s system, CO2 emissions can be reduced to up to 83% and methane emissions to 78%.

Eran Pollak, Chief Executive Officer, N-Drip, said:

“We’re thrilled to partner with PepsiCo with the goal of removing barriers to access, introducing and implementing N-Drip to farmers around the world. As PepsiCo sources crops from farms of all types and sizes, N-Drip’s proprietary technology allows our partnership to make precise irrigation accessible to all types of farmers, from those with massive farms to those with one-acre plots.”

PepsiCo stated that it aims to scale N-Drip’s technology to help improve farmer livelihoods with higher yields, reduced water consumption, and reduced CO2 emissions.

The announcement follows the introduction last year by PepsiCo of its pep+ sustainability framework. The program encompasses a broad range of ESG initiatives across agriculture practices, climate, water and packaging sustainability, and consumer health. One of the framework’s key pillars is Positive Agriculture, which is focused on improving direct agricultural supply chain water use efficiency by 15% by 2025 in areas of high-water risk.

Rob Meyers, VP, Sustainable Agriculture, PepsiCo, said:

“To date, we’ve implemented N-Drip’s technology with farmers in India, Vietnam, and the U.S., and saw improved crop yields, reduced fertilizer usage, and 50% less water consumed compared to flood irrigation. We’re thrilled to grow our partnership further by scaling N-Drip’s technology to make an even bigger impact across our agricultural footprint.”