As Class XX of the Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program continues to travel Israel, the group recently stopped at the Volcani Center for research and development for agriculture in Israel.
The center has been a major contributor to Israel’s remarkable achievements in agriculture. Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, had the chance to visit with Professor Shlomo Navarro, the current CEO of Grain Storage LTD about the vision of Israel agriculture.
Navarro said his work consists mainly of entomology research, particularly store products. Navarro was a researcher at the Volcani Center for 42 years, before his daughter established a company based on his knowledge and new technologies.
The company developed by Navarro’s daughter, he said, works with different technologies, such as cold fumigation treatment, which is useful in treated fresh products before exporting from Israel.
The cold fumigation system, Navarro said, utilizes a non-toxic gas to treat products before they are exported. This technology, Navarro said, requires many moving parts to get the finished product, including a special generator and fumigation chamber, in order to maintain the concentration for the exposure time needed, which he said is around 24 hours.
Navarro also talked about developing a non-chemical treatment to remove insects and larvae from dates before export. This treatment, he added, is based on heating the dates at a certain airflow rate.
Research is critical to grow food in Israel, Navarro said, because of the desert conditions.
“In the desert, the behavior of the people, of the farmer, is totally different than in a place where you are close to a water resource,” Navarro said. “Israel, first of all, had to find ways to save the water by developing the drip irrigation system.”
Although Israel is always working to improve water, Navarro said, they will continue to find more ways to better water availability and resources as years go by.
An extended amount of research regarding drought tolerance has been done at the Volcani Center since 1922, Navarro said, as Israel does not offer the conventional conditions that make it easy to grow produce.
Without research, Navarro said, Israel would not be able to grow anything.
“What we see today is a miracle,” Navarro said.
The farmers in Israel must receive credit for agricultural success in the country, Navarro said, as they have been responsive to new developments to improve farming.
“Israel farmers are ready to take risks in order to try new technologies,” Navarro said.
When the country was established in 1948, Navarro said there was not enough food for the population. Today, Navarro added, the country is able to produce most of its own food and imports minimal products such as grain because of the convenience.
Looking ahead, Navarro said he would like to see Israeli farmers integrating knowledge into their farming by using more technologies such as remote monitoring systems, to learn more about their crops to improve each year.