Israel’s agri hi-tech to help India bloom

The diminutive David has come to the help of the giant Goliath. This is how one can describe the offer of Israel to assist India in general and Tamil Nadu in particular to increase agricultural output by integrating technology with traditional wisdom.

Orna Sagiv, the Israeli Consul General who was in Chennai for two days from Monday, had the delegates of the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry agriculture wing spellbound with her presentation on how her country could assist India in converting its arid lands into evergreen gardens.

“When Israel was formed in 1948, we had a population of six lakh. Out of this, 65% were farmers. According to 2012 census, our population is eight million. But farmers constitute just 2.4% of the total population while we export more than half of our agriculture crops to the Europe and the USA,” said Sagiv.

She said the word agriculture has been long out of Israeli lexicon. “For us, it is agro technology since technology has been incorporated into farming operations. Israeli engineers invented drip irrigation as the country faces severe drought and does not have natural water resources. More than 80% of the water we use for irrigation is recycled water,” she said.

Scientific planning and climate specific crop selection helped Israel to make unbelievable progress in agro technology, she added.