We recently met up with Max MacGillivray Director of Beanstalk Global. This is what he had to say about Andrew and Drip UK.

Andrew Howseman is positioned by Beanstalk Global as an innovative expert tackling water scarcity and inefficient irrigation in UK farming, especially across potato and veg. With a background in farm management and significant hands-on experience as an irrigator, he sees his Drip UK system as a practical answer to the sector’s limited sophistication around irrigation. The business focuses on service and support, offering a “try before you buy” approach to encourage new customers. Andrew emphasises that growers are effectively purchasing “insurance” to protect crop quality for the end customer. Drip UK has simplified its technology, so systems are ready to roll out—described as being like a Meccano set or an IKEA wardrobe. The company also collaborates with Netafim to manage sustainability, ensuring that all used drip tape is collected, recycled, and returned to the business as recycled polymer.

Drip UK’s offer delivers transformative change to the potato and veg sectors by improving quality, efficiency, and environmental sustainability. Environmentally, drip irrigation matters because traditional methods that rely on large reservoirs are increasingly out of step with modern goals. The system dramatically improves water efficiency by delivering moisture exactly where it’s needed and enables much faster, more precise field irrigation than boom-and-reel methods. This efficiency supports profitability by lifting yields on marginal potato soils. Importantly, the drip tape infrastructure is evolutionary rather than disruptive, opening future uses such as nutrient delivery. Some customers already apply a large share of their fertilisation through the drip tape, and there is scope to deliver biological controls and nematodes, and even to influence the nutritional value or taste of potatoes through targeted enrichment. The future of the sectors is bright when deploying Andrew’s drip irrigation technology!