It took the sharp eyes of Simcha Blass to revolutionize irrigation. An Israeli water engineer dedicated to making the desert bloom, Blass noticed a hedge with one shrub noticeably healthier and taller than the others. Digging below the apparently dry surface of the soil, he discovered why: water from a leaking coupling was causing a small wet area on the surface, while an expanding onion shaped area of underground water was reaching the roots of this particular tree - and not the others. The drip irrigation concept was born and experiments that followed led Blass to create an irrigation device that used friction and water pressure loss to leak drops of water at regular intervals. Recognizing the high potential of his discovery, he began to look for ways to turn his idea into a product.

For the desert-based Kibbutz Hatzerim looking to expand its activities beyond agriculture, Simcha Blass’s invention opened up a world of possibilities - the kibbutz could go into manufacturing yet still keep its traditional links with agriculture and irrigation. Blass and Kibbutz Hatzerim signed a contract and 1965 saw Netafim’s first production facility erected among the kibbutz fields.

With Blass’s original narrow spaghetti tube model as the starting point, Netafim engineers working with Blass, developed the first online dripper.  The innovative design used spiral water passages to form a laminar water flow.  But when clogging emerged as a key problem in the laminar design, Netafim personnel met the challenge with a dripper that used a toothed labyrinth to create turbulence in the water flowing through the dripper.

As Netafim drip irrigation solutions reached more and more growers worldwide, one innovative product followed another. A major breakthrough came in 1976 when Netafim introduced the first pressure compensated dripper that enabled stable distribution of water and nutrients at pressure differences of up to3.5bar.

When farmers needed a dripper that could be easily retrieved on rolls prior to harvesting. Netafim brought out a product fitted with integral drippers. Then in the late 1980’s came the thin wall integral dripperline, a low cost solution for industrial field crops such as sugar cane.

The early 1990’s were highlighted by a new generation of drippers for soil-less greenhouse growing, and existing field drippers were further upgraded by addition of runoff prevention and anti-siphon features.

Growing awareness of environmental issues in the new millennium led Netafim to launch a highly advanced, pressure compensated, integral dripper for efficient application in environmental conditions were challenging and where water quality was inferior. More recently, Netafim patented a method for using drip irrigation with alternate water sources – natural and recycled.

For nearly 50 years, Netafim’s drip irrigation technology  has consistently fulfilled its commitment to  providing optimal irrigation solutions for agriculture, horticulture and landscape -  and to supporting universal efforts to protect the environment.

NETAFIM Drippers Evolution