Developed by an Iranian entrepreneur in Turkey's eastern Van province, an anti-hail device, which can turn hail into rain by preventing the crystallization of water via sound waves projected into the sky, has recently drawn intense interest from both domestic and foreign markets.

Iranian entrepreneur Yadollah Nasrollahi decided to produce this device to protect agricultural products from hail, but failed to get the necessary support from his own country.

He later applied to the Business Development Center (İŞGEM) in Van for the "anti-hail" device, it has since attracted a great deal of interest from the agricultural sector.

Upon domestic and foreign demands, Nasrollahi has launched the mass production of the device.

The device can prevent the crystallization of water via sound waves projected into the sky as a result of detonations of acetylene gas. The device can cover nearly 1,000 acres of land and can be controlled with a program via a mobile phone.

Orders for the device were first placed by Azerbaijan and later European countries.

Production for the device has accelerated in Van to fulfill an order placed by a company producing agricultural products in Greece.

İŞGEM Chairman Mahmut Gedik said they wanted to give the Iranian entrepreneur a chance and produced the device in this regard.

Gedik stated that they received research and development (R&D) support from Van Yüzüncü Yıl University Teknokent for the product, and manufactured the device preventing hail as a result, stressing that the device was previously produced in some countries, while Turkey has been importing this product for the past two years.

He recalled that there has been a serious increase in hail storms, which harm agricultural production and profits. "With this device that prevents hail, the sound waves generated by the detonation of the acetylene gas are spread over a distance of about 10-12 kilometers by means of a chimney," Gedik informed.

"Hail is already formed in a layer of air over six kilometers. The positive and negative poles of crystals formed in the cloud are prevented from coming together via the sound waves. As a result, hail comes down as rain."

Gedik stated that they tested each device's effectiveness on a thousand-acre area. Noting that after producing this device, very serious demands came from both Turkey and abroad, especially from farmers engaged in agriculture in the country, he pointed to the serious damage caused by hail on the Turkish economy.

"We believe that we have made a serious contribution to the national economy with this product. The product has now received interest from Greece. We are planning to export it to European countries. Greece is the first," he continued. "We sent our first exports to Azerbaijan. We were proud of that as well. Due to the high demand, we have now started mass production. We can complete one product every four days. We are trying to speed up the process."

Pointing out that the product is fully automated, Gedik said it will make significant contributions to both the economy and farmers, adding that they received demands from the automotive and solar energy systems for the product, as well. "All in all, hail has a negative impact on these sectors. We are proud to do this in Van," he concluded.

The Iranian entrepreneur Nasrollahi said farmers would no longer suffer a loss of agricultural products in hail storms.

"We successfully delivered some of the finished products," Nasrollahi said. "It is a smart system and very different from its likes in the world. This was tested both in Iran and the university there. It can be controlled with software installed on phones. We received orders from Greece. Our goal is to sell this device to all European countries."