NoorNation's LifeBox Powers Off-Grid Farming in the Middle East and Africa
NoorNation's flagship product, LifeBox, produces up to 600m³ of desalinated water and 130kWp of clean energy.
Food security is closely related to water availability. A scarcity of clean, unpolluted water sources undermines agricultural productivity. Crop yields decline, livestock suffer, and communities become vulnerable to hunger and malnutrition.
In Africa, most farmers depend on seasonal rainfall and variable surface water to grow crops and raise livestock. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), only seven percent of arable land in Africa is irrigated. Sub-Saharan Africa has even less, at about four percent of total cropland irrigated.
Africa holds large reserves of groundwater, but most farmers cannot afford the energy needed to access it. Traditional power sources for irrigation pumps — such as gasoline, diesel, or electricity — are costly and often unreliable.
As a result, solar-powered irrigation systems have become an appealing option for small-scale farmers, even though they require significant initial investment.
In 2019, two Egyptian entrepreneurs, Ragy Ramadan and Mohamed Khaled, founded NoorNation to address the often-intertwined problems of energy poverty, water scarcity, and food insecurity.
NoorNation manufactures solar-powered irrigation systems, and its flagship product, LifeBox, combines energy generation, water pumping, desalination, and smart monitoring, all in one portable unit.
LifeBox has bifacial solar panels for increased energy throughput and, the company claims, can produce up to 600m³ of desalinated water and 130kWp of clean energy. Users can remotely monitor the installation and optimise their energy use and irrigation schedules from an IoT dashboard.
NoorNation says its systems have desalinated 6 million litres of brackish water, saved farmers about $400,000 in energy costs, and reduced about 2,000 tons of CO₂ emissions by replacing diesel generators.
The startup provides pay-as-you-use irrigation services to small-scale farmers via a model it calls SIaaS (Solar Irrigation as a Service). It leases the LifeBox to the farmers on a flexible payment plan and charges them based on the pumping time they use. The company says farmers typically acquire full ownership of the LifeBox units within five to seven years.
“Noor” means light in Arabic, which the company says reflects its mission to bring illumination to underserved regions and off-grid communities in the Middle East and across Africa. With current operations in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, the company has active plans to expand into Sub-Saharan African markets.
NoorNation is part of our spotlight on climate tech and deep tech companies across the world. You can find more information about NoorNation and LifeBox on the company’s website.