In Washington, the Israeli Minister of Agriculture, Oded Forer, visiting the World Bank (WB) discussed last Tuesday with the vice-president for sustainable development at the institution, Juergen Voegele, the likelihood of become a regional innovation center for the desert and aquaculture for regional cooperation between Morocco, Israel, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.
” It was agreed to promote the establishment of an international center for the creation and dissemination of knowledge in the field of desert agriculture. », Underlines a press release fromIsraeli Ministry of Agriculturewhich also locates the place. “The center will be established in the Negev by the Ministry of Agriculture, in cooperation with the World Bank and other countries and international organizations“. In terms of form and substance, the idea was accepted and the WB, completely consenting moreover, should approve the ambitious project, and prepare a practical plan for the establishment of the research center. A procedure for visiting the various stakeholders has already been launched.
The agricultural sector in Israel has always been relatively technologically advanced. Israel is a hub for agricultural technologies and is well positioned to weather the worst predictions of a climate crisis. Agriculture benefits from general scientific research and R&D (research and development). The sector relies almost entirely on results which are implemented through close cooperation between farmers and researchers.
An effective data transmission system enables laboratory results to be sent quickly to the fields in order to resolve any field problems. In this area, R&D is carried out mainly by the Agricultural Research Organization of the Ministry of Agriculture. As far as export expertise is concerned, we will say, most Israeli agricultural research institutes maintain close relations with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations FAO, which guarantees a fruitful exchange of information with other countries.
Israel has nothing to envy to others when it comes to this key sector of agriculture, for example, the Hebrew state is a champion in milk production. Israel’s dairy cows hold world production records with an average rising from 6,600 liters in 1970 to over 10,000 liters today, thanks to the scientific breeding system and genetic analyzes carried out by the Volcani Institute. . In addition, technology is not left out, computers designed and manufactured in Israel are in common use in daily agricultural activities, such as calculating the quantities of fertilizer to be spread taking into account environmental factors; the preparation of fodder for livestock according to the most economical mixing formulas; humidity and temperature control in poultry houses. Also, very sophisticated equipment has been developed for plowing, sowing, planting, mowing, harvesting, sorting and packaging …
On the other hand, while the priority of the hour is to increase agricultural production in the face of increasingly extreme weather conditions, Israeli agro-tech companies have already set to work on the issue and forecasts of the climate crisis. Science, data and technology play a major role in adapting to the effects of climate change, according to Israeli agricultural technology entrepreneurs. In this context, Israeli agrotechnology innovators are constantly finding new formulas to update and reinvent agriculture. Technology in agriculture is not new, but the agricultural field is taking its creativity to the next level by adopting and devising new methods to change how it works.
A recently published study by NASA indicates how climate change could impact crop production over the next 10 years and specifies how the agricultural sector can remain in the spotlight of the environmental discourse. The main takeaway from the study, published in the journal Nature Food, is that advanced climate models combined with crop projection models indicated that global harvests would be affected by climate impacts much sooner than one. never thought so before. The study predicts yields of corn and cereals in general, among others, which may drop by 24% in some parts of the world “due to rising temperatures, changing seasons, l” increased levels of carbon dioxide in theincreasingly irregular atmosphere and precipitation “.
Dr Calanit Bar Am, director of strategy for the food system intelligence platform Trellis, said in an interview with “Times of Israel” about the study, ‘The report does not scare me, because we have the capacity to” mitigate some of these effects‘, convinced that technology will lead to ‘new opportunities‘ in agriculture. ‘Science, data and technology will play a major role in theadaptation to the effects of climate change on crop yields and the quality of corn and wheat and will provide new opportunities and values to the” whole food chain‘.
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