The results are in. After a year of fieldwork in the mid-hills of Nepal, our feasibility study on the Smart Sprayer has reached completion — and we are excited to share a fresh-off-the-press video reporting on the outcomes.

Carried out by a consortium of FutureWater, Practica, and the Climate Resilience Research Centre (Nepal), and supported by the Dutch Enterprise Agency through the Partners for Water programme, the study set out to tackle water scarcity in the Syangja district. The Smart Sprayer combines a low-pressure mini-pivot sprayer with tailored irrigation advice delivered by SMS and WhatsApp (Croptimal), helping farmers apply water uniformly and efficiently.

The response from the ten participating farmers in Putalibazar and Bheerkot has been encouraging. They report clear time savings, more efficient water use, and strong crop yields — irrigating larger areas with less water than conventional practices. Because the sprayer is lightweight and easy to operate, it has also made irrigation less physically demanding, particularly for the women who carry out much of the fieldwork.

Building on these results, the consortium is now looking ahead to a larger pilot. We hope to test the Smart Sprayer with 50–100 farmers during the upcoming dry season in the mid-hills of Nepal, the period when water shortages bite hardest and demand for produce is greatest. This pilot is the next step in making the technology ready for wider uptake across the Nepalese agricultural sector.

To make this happen, we are actively looking for funding opportunities and donors to help implement and co-design the pilot. We warmly invite interested partners and funders to reach out and explore how we can shape the project together. You can directly reach out to Pepijn van Ravesteyn (p.vanravesteyn@futurewater.nl).

You can watch the new video on the feasibility study results below, and read the full Smart Sprayer Pilot Project Proposal for details on objectives, site requirements, and planning.