Israel’s achievements in agriculture have been one of the country’s top priorities, and some of the techniques that have been developed are those concerned with the conservation of water which could, in turn, be the solution to the hunger experienced in the third world.
For many years Israel has been distributing various technologies worldwide about how to conserve and efficiently use water with new systems of water recycling and reclaiming of water resources. In 1955 the first practical Drip Irrigation system was developed by Simcha Blass, an Israeli Engineer. This system brings in a high yield of agriculture while at the same time saving water. Today the focus is on the desalination of seawater.
By making agricultural research one of the country’s top priorities and despite the serious lack of water, Israel is the only country worldwide with a higher number of trees today than it had at the beginning of the 20th century. One dunam of land (1000 square meters) cultivated in Israel has a yield of up to 30 times higher than the same size of land in a regular agricultural country.
The discovery in Israel that various crops respond and react in different ways according to the color of the shading nets used is now being implemented in some European countries. It is being intensively developed further all over Europe.
It is probably not generally known that the yield of milk from Israeli cows holds the world record, and even more interesting is that Israeli cows produce 40% less methane gas than the cows in other nations produce. This has significance environmentally because methane gas is regarded as one of the main global warming contributors.
In the production of seed and the development of special varieties of fruit and vegetables, Israel is a world leader. Strains of cherry tomatoes, melons, and citrus fruit have become top market leaders in Europe and many other countries, including South Africa and Morocco. In addition, 60%-70% of spices marketed in Europe come from Israel. Many other Israeli developments are being marketed and grown around the globe.
Several countries in Africa are inspired and are increasing their productivity by using the models of agricultural communities that Israeli Kibbutzim and Moshavim practice.