When we signed our research partnership with Estidamah in late 2024, the goal was not to demonstrate that LNC works — Desert Control's global network has done that. The goal was to quantify LNC behavior under Saudi-specific conditions, at Saudi-relevant crop systems, with Saudi-grade independent verification.
Scope of the program
- 5 hectares of instrumented research plots
- Multiple soil types representative of KSA farming regions
- Drip, pivot, and flood irrigation systems covered
- Independent monitoring by Estidamah agronomists
- Continuous soil moisture, plant health, and water-use telemetry
What we are measuring
Field programs live or die on measurement discipline. Our protocol captures, for every plot:
- Hourly soil moisture at three depths (15, 30, 60 cm)
- Weekly plant health assessments (leaf area, stress indicators)
- Per-irrigation water metering to the square meter
- Quarterly soil structure sampling (bulk density, infiltration rate)
- End-of-season yield and quality measurements
Why this matters for the Kingdom
For LNC to move from pilots to serious deployment on Saudi soil, operators and ministries need evidence built on Saudi conditions, not extrapolations from Yuma or Abu Dhabi. The Estidamah partnership is the bridge between global technology and Kingdom-scale execution. Early indicators from our pilot phase are encouraging — and aligned with international results — but the real value of the program is the discipline of independent, local, multi-season validation.
Full-season data will be published as results are finalized. In the meantime, the program continues — and every month of field data strengthens the foundation on which Saudi LNC deployment rests.