Orbia Netafim Launches GrowSphere™ FLEX to Scale Digital Farming for Smallholders and Mid-Sized Farmers
Expanding the GrowSphere™ portfolio with a new irrigation and fertigation solution designed as an accessible, right-sized entry point into connected automation
TEL AVIV, ISRAEL – 13 August, 2026 – Orbia Advance Corporation S.A.B. de C.V. (BMV: ORBIA*) Precision Agriculture business, Netafim, today announced the launch of GrowSphere™ FLEX, a smart irrigation and fertigation controller developed to bring professional digital farming capabilities to smallholders and mid-sized farmers. As part of the wider GrowSphere™ portfolio, FLEX supports Orbia Netafim's closed-loop approach to digital farming, enabling farmers to continuously optimize irrigation, improve efficiency and enhance crop performance.
Building on GrowSphere’s expanding global footprint, with thousands of users across more than 100,000 hectares in dozens of countries, FLEX strengthens a portfolio approach tailored to different farm sizes and levels of complexity. It allows more growers to adopt connected automation with a solution that fits their needs, as GrowSphere MAX delivers advanced capabilities for larger commercial operations.
Farms under two hectares account for approximately 84% of farms worldwide and produce around one-third of the world’s food. These growers, alongside mid-scale farmers, play an important role across agricultural value chains, from local food production and horticulture to globally traded crops such as coffee and cocoa. Yet many remain underserved by advanced automation tools built around the scale, infrastructure and budgets of larger commercial operations. FLEX was developed to close that gap, helping smaller farmers improve irrigation decisions, reduce manual work and strengthen resource efficiency through an automated, scalable solution.
With quick installation, built-in cellular connectivity and flexible configurations, the FLEX controller makes irrigation automation easier to adopt and scale across different crops, field layouts and farm needs. Through GrowSphere Workspace, growers can remotely manage irrigation and fertigation, monitor field and system performance with sensors, reports and alerts, and use cloud-based insights to make more timely operational decisions. Crop Advisor adds crop-stage-based recommendations, supporting more informed decisions as part of an intuitive, right-sized solution tailored to smaller and mid-scale farm operations.
“Innovation in digital farming cannot stop at large-scale agriculture,” said Gaby Miodownik, President of Orbia’s Precision Agriculture business (Netafim). “With FLEX, we are bringing Agriculture 4.0 within reach for farms of different sizes, needs and stages of digital adoption. It reflects Orbia Netafim’s commitment to expanding access to smart irrigation and fertigation, giving more farmers practical tools to manage their operations with greater clarity, control and confidence.”
Built for diverse crops, FLEX can be used across open fields, orchards, vineyards, citrus, greenhouses and nurseries, supporting soil-based systems and operating in challenging hydraulic conditions. Over the past year, the controller has undergone an extensive beta phase in real-world field conditions, with installations across multiple regions, helping validate its performance across a range of climates and irrigation setups.
“On a smaller farm, every irrigation decision shows up quickly in the crop,” said Theo Minnaar, a sugarcane grower in South Africa. “What FLEX gives me is better visibility and more control. I can see what is happening, respond earlier and manage water and nutrients more accurately without making the system complicated.”
FLEX is being introduced through a phased global rollout. To learn more about GrowSphere™ FLEX, visit: https://www.netafim.com/en/digital-farming/growsphere--flex/
