Israel: "We Have The Technology To Revive The Deserts Around The World"

Israel: "We have the technology to revive the deserts around the world"

Did you know that the territory of Israel is 50% desert and practically has no water? With these very arid conditions, how do you produce food for your population? The answer lies in its scientists who created solutions to efficiently use the little arable land they have.

Israel produces 70% of the food that it currently consumes, but that was not always the case. Since the 1950s, Israeli scientists are working on technologies that serve their agriculture and also that of the rest of the world that adopts their practices. Their innovations are the key to cultivating in the desert and their success is such that agricultural products account for most of their exports.

The local agricultural sector is technically almost entirely thanks to the fact that, since the 2000s, they have implemented Research and Development (R & D) programs, a public policy promoted by the government in their institutions and universities. The developed technology includes systems to keep their grains fresh, biological controllers of pests, advisory software for farmers, in addition to the use of seeds more resistant to extreme environmental conditions.

Government, academic institutions, private industry and producers of all sizes from Israel joined their efforts to solve the challenges of this area and, as a result, agriculture is now the means of subsistence for a large part of the population, especially in Arava, the valley that serves as a border with the Negev desert, in the south of the country.

Life with dropper

One of the greatest achievements of the Israeli agricultural sector is the efficiency in its irrigation processes. By introducing better technology, production has increased almost five times in the last 30 years. This, without making almost any change in the amount of water they used, but how did they do it?

Thanks to drip irrigation, the plant directly obtains only the water it needs. In addition, they use computerized irrigation systems that reduce consumption up to 70% compared to gravity irrigation.

The water reserves that Israel has annually add up to approximately 1,600 million cubic meters and 75% of these reserves are destined to agriculture. To use the resource efficiently, Israeli scientists worked on a miniature irrigation process with flows of 100 to 200 cubic centimeters per hour to create optimal air and water ratios that improved the ability to save. In addition, they developed microrociadores and microaspersores.2A_agricultura

Irrigation systems have more than one function. For example, the computerized fertigation that is responsible for fertilizing through the irrigation system, controlling temperature and humidity.

If life gives you lemons, sell lemonades

Israeli farmers use products adapted to their conditions. They take the advantages of sunlight, take advantage of high temperature, abundant soil and, from this, they cultivate with less energy expenditure.

In Néguev, for example, they introduced new varieties of citrus that increased the yield between 50 and 100%. There are also olive groves irrigated with brackish water - which have more dissolved salts than fresh water but less than sea water - with a yield six times greater than that of rainwater in other countries.

Its technicians also developed specialized machines for each stage of the supply chain, including the classification of products, packaging, storage and transportation. Thanks to the implementation of this technology, Israel is now one of the main exporters of raw materials and tools to produce food.

With information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel

Source: Let's talk about the Field