Orbia Netafim Unveils Mega-PULSAR to Combat Orchard Heat

Orbia Advance Corporation’s Precision Agriculture business, Netafim, is unveiling Mega-PULSAR, a full-coverage pulsing sprinkler technology designed to protect orchards from severe heat stress caused by increasingly frequent and intense heatwaves.

“Today’s growers are facing a new level of agricultural risk driven by extreme weather events, especially more frequent heatwaves, and most are not prepared. We developed Mega-PULSAR in direct response to the evolving needs of our growers, offering a scalable and efficient way to protect orchards from every angle and at every phase of orchard growth. This innovation follows our ongoing mission over the past 60 years to help farmers grow more with less, even in the face of unprecedented challenges,” says Orit Katzir, Global Product Manager, Orbia Precision Agriculture.

This latest innovation is aimed at growers of high-value subtropical crops such as avocado, mango, and lychee, offering a sustainable and efficient solution to mitigate extreme weather impacts while addressing ongoing water scarcity challenges.

Heatwaves pose a critical risk to crop yield and quality, especially during fruit set and pre-harvest periods. Mega-PULSAR combats this by delivering uniform, low-volume water pulses across the orchard canopy, forming a localized microclimate that lowers temperatures and increases humidity. This dual cooling effect, which provides direct cooling on tree surfaces and evaporative cooling in the surrounding air, safeguards crops from heat stress.

Unlike conventional systems, Mega-PULSAR offers wide spacing installation, high water-use efficiency, and minimal maintenance. Its modular design reduces the number of units needed per hectare, lowers labor costs, and allows for easy customization to match varying orchard sizes and topographies. The technology supports multiple flow rates and spacing configurations, giving growers flexibility while cutting operational overhead.

Leveraging Netafim’s proprietary pulsation mechanism, Mega-PULSAR mimics natural rainfall, using less water while covering the entire orchard area. This innovation builds on the company’s six decades of work to help farmers “grow more with less” and future-proof agricultural operations against climate variability.

First deployed in Spring 2025, Mega-PULSAR installations have already shown significant increases in relative humidity and notable reductions in orchard temperatures, confirming its potential as a transformative tool in orchard heat mitigation strategies.