THE WATER OF LIFE Israel has signed a deal with the World Bank to provide water technology and expertise to developing countries.
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Israel, a joke goes: “In the desert, Moses made water gush out of a rock. But he forgot to let us have the technology, so we, too, are having to perform miracles.” Today, the descendants of Moses feel proud that they have accomplished a miracle of their own: that highly productive farming can be found across the Negev Desert. Growing crops in these arid districts of southern Israel has become possible thanks to, among other things, new irrigation methods. “For 2000 years, the Jews of the Diaspora no longer practised agriculture,” explains Uri Ariel, Israel’s minister in charge of farming. 14 Industry Europe
“We have had to learn everything all over again from the beginning and, over a few decades, we have obtained excellent results.” Today, he says, Israel has achieved selfsufficiency in the production of fruit and vegetables, dairy products, poultry and eggs. “We export our know-how across the world, including to developing countries.”
Micro irrigation Innovative farming techniques were developed in the first kibbutzim. Hatzerim, a kibbutz established in 1946, in the north of the Negev Desert, is the cradle of micro-irrigation technology — a system that optimides
the watering of crops. Simcha Blass, the inventor of this technology, created a company called Netafim in the kibbutz, in 1965. Instead of intermittently flooding the fields with water, the aim is to bring the water, drop by drop, to the foot of the plants, thanks to a network of thin pipes that are pierced along their length with small holes. The plants are irrigated continuously, directly to the root, and losses of water due to evaporation are reduced. [This is known as drip irrigation.] “With micro-irrigation technology, 90 per cent to 95 per cent of the water goes to the plant, against 40 to 60 per cent with traditional irrigation techniques,” stresses Natan Barak,
