Middle East Khalifa Award for revolutionary Dutch water-saving technology

Press message 25-03-2019

The Dutch company Groasis has received the prestigious Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation for its pioneering and sophisticated invention, the Groasis Ecological Water Saving Technology, which serves the agricultural and date palm sector.

Groasis has developed a revolutionary way of improving water efficiency while planting trees in combination with 4 plants. Its technology results in water savings of up to 90%, is 90% cheaper than alternatives such as drip irrigation, whilst delivering a survival rate of up to 90%. In giving this award to Groasis, the UAE government acknowledged that the positive impact of the Groasis Technology is proven, not just promised. 

Groasis’ innovative technology is not limited to its efficient water use. While planting trees in the biodegradable, low cost, Growboxx® plant cocoon the planter can combine this with planting four other plants at the same time – such as vegetables, bedding plants, flowers or bushes. At this moment Groasis is demonstrating these capacities as an innovation accelerator partner of the UN World Food Programme in Colombia.

Groasis – founded by Pieter Hoff, who is an active blogger known as the ‘Green Musketeer’ – strives to implement the Treesolution: restoring 2 billion hectares (5 billion acres) of eroded and degraded land with productive trees. Doing so addresses many UN Sustainable Development Goals and will remove all of mankind’s annual CO₂ emissions from the atmosphere. The tree is the only affordable and scalable instrument to reduce the concentration of CO₂ in the atmosphere from today’s 410ppm to 280ppm: the level prior to the industrial revolution. Pieter Hoff says ‘trees are the cheapest instrument that mankind has to prevent climate change’.

Note to editors:

About the company: The Groasis Ecological Water Saving Technology was developed by Groasis B.V., a social enterprise from the Netherlands that has developed multiple products to grow productive trees in combination with vegetables, shrubs or flowers without the use of extensive irrigation systems. With these products, ideally suited for both eco system restoration and agroforestry, dry lands can be made productive again while at the same time the CO₂-concentration in the atmosphere can be reduced.

Besides this amazing news, we see that more and more companies believe in planting trees to disconnect CO₂. This week, ENI - a large oil and gas company - has published to reforest 81.000 km2 (8.100.000 hectares) in order to make their company CO₂ neutral.

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Contact information:

  • Celine van Haaften – mail to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call +31 (0) 167 – 54 75 54
  • Contact us at our press mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 
  • More information can be found on: www.groasis.com