Food security is a critical problem as the global population expands and natural resources become scarcity.
No other country has contributed more breakthroughs to this area than Israel. Here are the major ways on how Israel helps to feed the world.
1. Drip irrigation
Israeli TIPA drip irrigation has impacted food supply in foreign countries , a kit that enables gravity to irrigate when there is no water pressure in rural areas of Senegal, Kenya, South Africa, Benin and Niger.
- More grain on market
The majority of harvested grains and pulses get ruined by pests and mold before reaching the market globally.
Israeli-designed GrainPro Cocoons provide an easy and cheap way for African and Asian farmers to keep their grain market-fresh.
- Saving mangoes from fruit-fly devastation
Mangoes provide means of living for many farmers in developing countries. However, many mango growers in India, the Americas and West Africa have simply given up because such a high percentage of their crops were infected by fruit flies.
That situation is being reversed by a novel product from Israel’s Biofeed, another of the 6 startups in the 2018 India-Israel Bridge to Innovation program.
Biofeed has demonstrated decrease of fruit-fly infestation from 95%to less than 5% in a pilot test with Indian mango farmers, while a pilot program in Togo reduced infestation in many areas from 88-95%.
- Precision agriculture
Israel’s large and growing precision agri-tech sector has more than 450 companies offering advanced collection and analysis of data technologies for more efficient and productive farming.
- Helping more farmers export crops
Farms can’t export unless they comply with complex changing government regulations in target countries regarding details including water, fertilizer, pesticides, plant protection, and labor conditions.
That’s a big challenge for some farms, which must be part of larger cooperatives if they want to sell abroad.
The unique cloud-based farm management system from kibbutz-based Agricultural Knowledge On-Line (AKOL) gives farmers constantly updated regulatory guidelines on a single dashboard.
The AKOLogic system helps farmers to be updated
- Squeezing every drop of water from the air
Tal-Ya Water Technologies reuse plastic tray to collect dew from the air, reducing the water needed by crops or trees by up to 50 %.
recyclable plastic with UV light filters
- Hardier seeds for more and better crops
Seed breeding has been an Israeli speciality. Israeli scientists have made many types of seeds more nutritious, high-yield and flavorful, and resistant to drought and disease; and also new fruit and vegetable varieties have been developed.
