Water is precious and should not be entrusted to anything but the very best irrigation equipment. That is why Franek Raciborski entered the irrigation industry 25 years ago as an agent for Valley, the manufacturer of more that 50% of the pivot irrigation systems in the world. Franek founded Irritech in South Africa as a distributer of Valley as well as drip irrigation systems.

Franek is still head of sales today. 20 years ago he boarded a train to Zambia and started selling irrigation systems locally. Three years later, Irritech Zambia was registered. Irritech grew rapidly over the years and opened branches in Swaziland, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, the DRC and Rwanda, but their Zambian base is the largest one outside South-Africa.

“We have 53 staff members in Zambia, including three sales engineers. We recently moved into our new premises in Chilanga, just south of Lusaka. It entails a large store and service department with a backup workshop. For the farmers north of Lusaka we have a depot in Mkushi where a team of three personnel with a crane truck are based. We have also recently opened a depot in the Stassen grocery store at the Chisamba roadblock. The spares in the depots are guaranteed to cost the same as in Lusaka,” says Ross O’ Donoghue,

Director of Zambia and co-owner of Irritech. Irritech can boast with about 700 pivots in Zambia today. This constitutes about 50% of all the pivots in the country. But the market has changed a lot. “Three years ago there were three irrigation companies exhibiting at Agritech and now there are eight,” says Ross.

“The competitio became very strong, but we feel that we still have the best product on the market and a superior servicing ability, and that is basically where sales stem from – after sales service. Pricing is becoming more and more competitive. Farmers are now purchasing based on price, but good service comes at a cost,” he says.

Although the market is quiet at present, to date Irritech have sold a large number of pivots this year. They have already sold a number of pivots in 2017, but nowadays farmers are also approaching them for efficiency conversions on their existing systems. “We are convinced that we are leading the market in variable speed drives (VSD’s) in Zambia and we have approximately K2 million of VSD stock in Zambia and the technicians who can install and service them all.

For efficient energy and water usage, VSD’s are crucial. One of a farmer’s biggest expenses is Zesco power and as the price of electricity increases, farmers will spend more money on the enhancement of efficiency. We are cutting their bills by 30% to 40% with the same irrigation application, but with more efficient control of their motors,” Ross says.

“Zambia Irritech recently introduced dripper irrigation with microjets and to this end we employed an expert in micro irrigation, Edu Boettiger. He has been here for six months now and this side of our business is gaining momentum.”

You too can reap the benefits of the ultimate irrigation systems in the world. Contact Ross O’Donoghue at +260 9712-52016 , or send an e-mail to ross@irritechsa.co.za.

Ross O’ Donoghue, Director and Coowner
of Irritech, shows their state of the art Valley control panel which allows remote monitoring of irrigation systems through radio links to the Valley base station, which can be your smart device or a personal
computer.

A group of farmers listen attentively while Edu Boettiger and Susan Phiri explains the operation of the drip irrigation system at the Irritech stand.