ISTANBUL, Türkiye, May 25, 2026 (EZ Newswire) -- Agricultural nano-technology firm ANT Systems has begun industrial-scale production of NANOTERN™, a biodegradable, cellulose-based water-retention material designed for drought conditions, the company said on Saturday. Headquartered in The Hague through ANT Systems Holding B.V., with research and production in Istanbul, the company has raised about $5 million to date and values its technology portfolio at more than $30 million.

NANOTERN, already in use in the United States, South America, the Gulf states and parts of Africa, will be made at a new 3,000-ton-per-year facility in Istanbul. Similar superabsorbent and controlled-release technologies are being developed by major global agricultural companies, but most remain at laboratory or pilot stages. ANT Systems describes itself as the first and only producer making such patent-protected material at industrial scale with field-validated results.

NANOTERN absorbs up to 1,800 times its own weight in water and releases it back to the soil as plants need it, leaving no residue. The company's technologies focus on the regulation of natural resources and agricultural inputs water, fertilizers, and crop-protection compounds; it says the material can cut irrigation use by up to 50% and lift yields by up to 25%. Agriculture accounts for roughly 70% of global freshwater consumption, according to United Nations data, and the combined global market for superabsorbent and controlled-release agricultural technologies is projected to exceed $30 billion within the next decade.

ANT Systems holds global patent rights to seven nano-bio technologies under NANOTERN, ANTIMIC AGRO, and INSEASE, developed over 15 years of research at Sabancı University in Istanbul spanning biodegradable SAPs, heavy-metal-free disinfection agents, nano-scale encapsulation, and smart greenhouse films.

Can Yurdakul, co-founder and CEO of ANT Systems, said, "The real breakthrough is not using less water; it is managing it. We built a material that holds water in the soil and returns it to the plant on demand. In regions where access to water decides whether a harvest survives, this is no longer an agricultural product; it is a food-security tool and we are producing it at industrial scale while most of the world is still in the lab."

Professor Yusuf Menceloğlu, co-founder and chief technology officer, said, "The reason these products are nano is simple: with less material you achieve more effective results."

Güler Sabancı, chairperson of the Sabancı Foundation and an investor in the company, said, "In facing the climate crisis and the water stress we are living through, the only thing we can rely on is technology and science-based research."