No other country - certainly not as young and as small as Israel - has helped to revolutionise agriculture as much as this country. Since the 1950s, the Israelis have not only miraculously found a way to make their own desert green but they have shared their findings with many other countries throughout the world.
One of the major achievements in Israeli agriculture has been the capacity of the farmers to use the desert zones like greenhouses. Just as the children of Israel have been forced to survive in the desert for 40 years, so the economy has forced numerous farmers to grow crops in arid regions of the country’s southern periphery rather than on the more expensive land in the centre of Israel. The exposure to long hot days, freezing nights and sudden floods has made the Israelis experts in the farming of arid and semi-arid zones.
Whereas the concept of drip irrigation existed well before Israel became independent, it has been revolutionised by the Israeli water engineer Simcha Blass, who discovered quite by accident that irrigating plants via a slow and constant drip system led to a remarkable growth rate.
Today, Israel:
• Has the most developed irrigation methods in the world.
• Is the world leader in recycling and reusing wastewater.
• Has the most advanced technologies on the global water heating and power generation market.
From the outset, Israel’s agricultural sector was forced to come up with advanced solutions to feed its citizens. Situated in one of the most arid regions in the world, Israel has been a pioneer and leader in the concepts of drip irrigation, recycling and the purification and reuse of water for agricultural purposes.
In Israel, the decision-makers, scientists, industries, organisations, farmers and bankers work together to overcome supposedly insurmountable obstacles and push back the boundaries of the desert, developing food resources and ‘pushing back the limits’ of farming under difficult conditions. On the basis of its accumulated experience, Israel is ready to play a major role in providing the world with the latest state-of-the-art solutions for agriculture.