Israel is using technology to deal with extreme climatic conditions, water limitation and soil type in maximising food production.
A visit to the Negev, a desert and semidesert region in southern Israel, gives a glimpse of just how agriculture has also gone online in the country.
Researchers at the Gilat Research Centre, Centre for Agriculture in Arid Areas, explained and demonstrated to a delegation of journalists from Kenya, Rwanda and Zambia how they are creating water, fertilisation and temperature conditions to enhance yields.
The centre, which seeks to provide solutions for sustainable agriculture in arid and semi-arid regions, is also training students from Africa, including Kenya.
The researchers said they grow crops in containers using a substance called pyrite, an alternative fertiliser based on the availability of the nutrients the plants need.
“Each of the containers gets different levels of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium and the levels of the nutrients a plant is getting is marked on the container. The main idea is to know how much fertiliser to apply in order to get maximum yield,” Prof Arnon Dag, a researcher at the Gilat Centre, explained.
Prof Dag added that the student doing a masters thesis on the project is from Kenya.
“He is collecting and analysing all the data, doing statistical analysis and his plan is to go back to Kenya and share the knowledge and experience that he gained here to the village he comes from. We are in partnership with universities in Kenya and we are having students coming to do research studies in this area. One of our objectives is to share our knowledge with other countries,” Prof Dag said.
In another avocado farming project, the researchers demonstrated how they are able to monitor the amount of water given to the plant, what it consumes and what goes to the drainage digitally.
Prof Hagai Yasour said everything that gets to the trunk of the tree is monitored real-time online through a gadget attached to the tree.
“Everything is very controlled so that we can be precise in understanding the process of the treatment and what is the exact need of the tree in terms of fertilisation throughout the year. We can then pass this information to the farmers to use in their orchards,” Prof Yasour said.
Why this?
Prof Dag explained that the health and the yield of a plant will depend on the nutrients it gets through fertilisation.
“The impact of fertiliser is so important and in general, fertilisation in Africa is not done right. You can produce much more if you fertilise properly. Many countries do not fertilise their crops enough, maybe because they do not have enough knowledge and access to fertilisation. When you fertilise your crop or land, you increase dramatically the yield,” Dag added.
The centre, which is under the Ministry of Agriculture, acknowledges that a huge part of the world is arid and too dry for conventional rain-fed agriculture.
Kenya Ambassador Lt Gen (Rtd) Samuel Thuita noted that Israel has modernised their agriculture so much that most of the products Nairobi used to export, they themselves now are exporters to the world.
“So the opportunities for us, and that is what we are focusing on, is gaining in areas they are ahead than most of the rest of the world in terms of technology, fintech and advanced agriculture and environmental issues.
“We have a huge population of students training in Israel. When it comes to advanced agriculture, our students come and learn how to carry out agriculture in a desert environment,” Ambassador Thuita said in an interview in Tel Aviv.
Between 2016-17 and to date, we have trained 751 students. Initially we had an average of 120 students coming but that number has gone up. This year, we have 200 students. In addition to that, we have gotten scholarships for masters students doing plant science, environmental science, soil technology, civil engineering and even health. We also have some PhD students,” the envoy added.
Israel acknowledges with the increase in population and climate change, it will be a challenge to feed people.
It also recognises that ability to farm and produce in these areas will be much difficult as the evaporation of water from the land significantly exceeds the rainfall.
It is against this background that Israel believes agriculture production must be optimised in conjunction with water management focusing on conservation, efficiency and sustainability. Eighty per cent of the Negev Desert Gardens are irrigated with treated sewage water, and drip irrigation waters 75 per cent of Israel's crops.
The emerging challenges include extreme climatic conditions in terms of temperature and radiation, water limitations as far as quantity, quality and utilisation is concerned and soil type, which might have poor organic matter levels.
Innovative research systems are thus needed to tackle the challenges and the researchers opine that future optimisation of agriculture in arid areas will involve fundamental knowledge regarding the dynamic, interactive relationship between climate change and crop/soil management in agro-systems.
-Edited by SKanyara