Cooking Oil – The Perfect Pesticide

29 03 2012

Oil-based pest control is simple and inexpensive

Thin-skinned vegetables such as tomatoes and zucchini are susceptible to insect infestation and fungi, and even new organic pesticides are not completely safe, says Israeli agriculture scientist Samuel Gan-Mor.

He’s got a new approach that could revolutionize the way bugs are kept from crops: a mixture of edible, off-the-shelf canola or rapeseed oil, soybean oil, cottonseed oil and even the slightly more expensive olive oil.

The advanced sprayer is part of the package containing the blend of oils, along with an emulsifier. The product is being marketed as a new organic pesticide alternative that is 100 percent safe, even if used minutes before harvest. Chemical pesticides require a “cooling off” period between application and harvesting because of the health risks involved to people and wildlife.

Smaller farms could share a sprayer machine, and basic materials are cheap – about $1 a liter for the oil, which is heavily diluted with water. All that’s needed besides the solution is access to electricity to run the sprayer.

“The oil blends could be created to match the crop or the insect,” says Gan-Mor, who continues to work on making the agriculture industry less toxic to humankind.

For further reading click here


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Categories : Agricultural

Black Tomato Coming to a Salad Near You

14 02 2012

Black Galaxy: the new crossbreed - which includes blueberry pigment - may be more nutritious than a regular tomato

Everyone knows that Israeli food is scrumptious, fresh and flavorsome. It’s also highly innovative.

At the annual Arava Agricultural R&D exhibition – which took place earlier this month -visitors were wowed by new edible produce including a black tomato, rainbow colored carrots and red lemons.

Over 250 companies from Israel and around the world participated in the expo.

The new species of fruits and vegetables are set for export. And in addition to adding a splash of color to the salad bowl, the new produce reportedly packs more vitamins and antioxidants into its fruit/vegetable.

Rainbow carrots Photo: Bareket Tal

“Black Galaxy” tomato was developed by Technological Seeds DM. The company says that the color was derived from a pigment in blueberries and that the new species has higher concentrations of Vitamin C as found in regular tomatoes.

Among other new edible creations, the show featured the latest agro-tech developments including thermal plant imaging and a crop dusting robot.

Thank you israel21c.org for the story


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Categories : Agricultural

Did You Know?…

12 01 2012

 

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As a country, Israel is defined by its collective successes and what follows is but a small sampling of that:

• Ten Israelis have won the Nobel Prize so far.

• Israel is a leader in quality of life. In a comparison conducted by the UN regarding quality of life in 182 countries, Israel ranked 27th, only slightly lower than the UK.

• Israel’s healthcare system is one of the most advanced in the world.

• Israel is a leader in biotechnology development.

• Israeli medical developments are used in the best operating rooms across the world.

• Israeli cows produce the largest amount and highest quality of milk in the world.

• Israel is the only country that entered the 21st century with a net gain in its number of trees.

• Israel is one of the world’s top leaders in agricultural development and fruit cloning.

• A quarter of the population holds a degree – ranking third in the world.

• Israel produces more scientific papers and more patents per capita than any other country.

• Relative to its population, Israel is the largest immigrant- absorbing nation, has more museums per capita and receives more media coverage than any other country in the world.

• Israel has sent emergency delegations around the world to assist foreign governments in times of major disaster including but not limited to Cambodia, Rwanda, Turkey, Argentina, Armenia, Russia, Kenya, New Orleans, Haiti, Japan, Indonesia and Thailand.

• The IDF was the first major medical team to set up camp immediately following the devastating earthquake in Haiti.

• The World Economic Forum has recognized Israel as one of the leading countries in the world in technological innovation.

• The cell phone, disk on key, instant messenger chat, voicemail technology and PillCam were all developed in Israel. The Pentium4 processor was designed and developed in Israel as well.

• Microsoft and Cisco built their largest R&D centers in Israel.

• Apple chose Israel as its first and only R&D center outside the US.

• Israel has the world’s highest percentage of engineers and scientists.

• Israel is a leader in genetics and preventive medicine.

• Israel sends hundreds of missions to developing countries worldwide.

• Israeli agricultural experts introduced drip-irrigation technology, saving water in arid regions.

• An Israeli company recently discovered a way to eradicate the use of pesticides for pest control by using edible oil instead.

• A simple, inexpensive Israeli solution for storing staples is helping Africans, South Americans and Asians survive food shortages.

• Except for the US and Canada, Israel has the most traded companies on Wall Street than any other country.

• Israel is a leader in coexistence programs that bring together Arabs and Jews.

• Israel has an incredible array of institutions that focus on charitable outreach and offering help to the needy.

• Israel is unique in terms of its size, location and diversity of climate and wildlife.

• Jerusalem’s Biblical Zoo is involved in worldwide breeding efforts and to reintroduce animals to their natural habitats.

• Israel is the only place where biblical history really comes alive.

• While far from perfect, the Knesset is an anomaly in the Middle East. Its makeup of Arabs and Jews, Secular and Orthodox and men and women makes Israel a unique liberal democracy – in fact the only one in the Middle East.

• Israel’s military prowess and might is world renowned. It is a leading force in battlefield technology, counterterrorism, combat skills, intelligence gathering and air superiority. The Mossad is likely the world’s top intelligence agency, unsurpassed in its ability to gather information from around the globe.

For all these reasons and more, it is important to recognize and appreciate that with all its problems, Israel is a great country.

Thank you Jpost for the article.


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Categories : Agricultural, Medical, People and Culture, Technology

Israel’s New Winter Fruit

5 01 2012

If you ask any Israeli during the winter time what he misses the most, he will probably say “a big red delicious watermelon!”

Now their prayers are answered!  The new yellow-orange watermelon will transport you back to the sweet fruits of summer. The new fruit is a joint venture between farmer Itay Gal from Moshav Ein Yahav in the Arava Desert  and Hishtil Nurseries.

The new fruit is oval shaped with a bottle green rind and dark green stripes. This new watermelon is firm, crisp and more sweet than the usual summer red watermelon. The average weight of an orange watermelon is 6.6 lbs making it much easier to carry home and store in your home refrigerator.

Grown hanging in hothouses the melons are wrapped in the early stages of growth in a mesh bag to protect them from damage. The mesh bag remains on the fruit all the the way to market shelf…and on to your refrigerator.


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Categories : Agricultural

“Continued Agricultural Innovation is the Key to Meeting Growing Global Demand”

15 12 2011

Monsanto and Evogene Ltd. announced today a one-year extension to their five-year research and development collaboration focused on identifying key plant genes related to yield, environmental stress and fertilizer utilization in corn, soybean, cotton and canola. The companies recently announced the successful completion of the collaboration’s third year.

Ofer Haviv, Evogene’s President and CEO stated, “We are delighted by this extension of our joint work with Monsanto and in particular with the addition of our Gene2Product computational technologies. We expect that by bringing together Monsanto’s development expertise and these new Evogene technologies, in addition to those already utilized in the collaboration, the companies will be able to further address some of the key challenges that the seed industry is facing in the discovery and development process for biotechnology products in agriculture”.

“Continued agricultural innovation is the key to meeting growing global demand, which is why productive collaborations like this one are critical,” added Bob Reiter, Vice President and Global Lead of Biotechnology for Monsanto Company. “By combining Evogene’s innovative gene discovery technologies with Monsanto’s trait development expertise, we’ll ultimately be able to better deliver products to help farmers increase their productivity”.

Evogene, based in Rehovot, Israel is a world leading developer of improved plant traits, such as yield and drought tolerance, for a wide diversity of key crops through the use of plant genomics. The company focuses on utilizing its proprietary computational genomic technologies to provide a complete solution for plant trait improvement through combining state of the art biotechnology and advanced breeding methods.

Source: www.evogene.com


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Categories : Agricultural

Modern ‘rain dance’ for Senegal

15 09 2011

Most of the farmers in Senegal rely on rainwater to grow their maize. But rain-fed crops make for an unreliable harvest, especially in a changing climate. In addition, traditional seeds, pesticides and chemicals are causing damage to water and resources.  The solution? Israeli drip irrigation.

“We’ve developed a system which can bring a model or solution for sustainable development in the rural areas in south Saharan Africa, and in developing countries where there is no agriculture,” says Ilan Fluss, director of external affairs for the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s MASHAV Center for International Cooperation.

Standing about one yard off the ground, the Israeli drip irrigation system, called Tipa (“Drop”), includes a cement reservoir, a water pump (that can be operated by hand, solar power pump or diesel generator) and plastic irrigation pipes. Gravity sends the water right to the roots of the plants, minimizing evaporation, soil leaching and the need for high volumes of pesticides and fertilizers.

“We’ve given them a system that can use land that looks impossible to use,” says Fluss. “One can use this system on degraded land that is not very fertile.”

The Israeli system has allowed 700 farming families in the Senegalese regions of Ngoe, M’bassis, Daptior, Keur Yaba and Mbisau to reap crops three times a year instead of just once, and to experiment with higher-value crops to sell in local markets providing a complete, sustainable source of income for small farms, a majority of which are maintained by women.

So successful has been this Israeli model, which is supported by low-interest loans from third-party NGOs in the region, that other farmers in the project areas have copied it.

Furthermore, the Israeli project will now be part of the country’s national strategy for development, Fluss reveals. Through a trilateral partnership including Israel, Italy and the Senegalese government, Tipa will be extended to some 500 hectares of land and will directly benefit 10,000 more people.

Farmers inspecting how the Tipa system will bring just right amount of water to the roots

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
For further reading please click here

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Categories : Agricultural

Micro-Climate Maps Make Better Crops

25 08 2011

Israeli farmers will soon have access to detailed data mined from a weather satellite, providing clues to prime planting and pest control

Hikers and nature lovers can feel the landscape through which they tread: Lower in the valley, the moist, cool air offers a reprieve on a sunny summer day. The footpath around the mountain is drier, noticeably warmer. What they are experiencing is topoclimates, or micro-climates.

You won’t find this kind of information on modern weather maps, which generalize and average out temperatures in specific locales over hundreds of miles, blurring the details of variable climatic conditions in each small area.

According to new research from Israel, if farmers had access to such precise data, they could better time sowing and harvesting, predict how much water might be needed that year to water the crops, identify parts of a field that may be more cool, humid or prone to dry, hot winds and potentially avoid devastating damage by pests, perhaps using less pesticide as a consequence.

A team of researchers led by Itamar Lensky from Bar- Ilan University and Uri Dayan from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem are providing just this kind of information to Israeli farmers, for the first time, using public satellite data collected by NASA on microclimates throughout the world. By next year, the team hopes to have a detailed map of the microclimates of Israel.

Looking at corn crops, Lensky surveyed three different valleys all within a short distance of each other. “I fed into my computer the whole northern part of Israel planted with corn in March and then I waited for 120 days and looked at what is the expected height at each point at very short distances from each other.”

Remarkably, even on farms in the same vicinity, the height of the stalks can be radically different. In one field, the stalks were 40 centimeters (nearly 16 inches) higher in a plot that was planted at the same time as two others.

Microclimate data could help farmers know where and when to plant to improve yields. One tract of farmland could be sowed earlier and another later, depending on the varying temperatures. This sort of information may be increasingly meaningful as natural resources become more stretched, and countries fight to increase yields to the maximum.

And as climate change effects become more severe, access to this data could be even more crucial in the area of pest control. “Insects and other cold-blooded animals depend on ambient temperature for development,” Lensky explains. “We showed with corn and heliothis, an insect that feeds on corn, tomatoes and cotton and many different plants all over the world the effect of local climate on the plants and also on the pests.”

In the foreseeable future, such microclimate models could be made for farmers around the world, giving detailed information about each square mile an electronic farmer’s almanac, if you will.

For further reading please click here


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Categories : Agricultural

Another Triumph for Israeli Wine

2 06 2011

In the latest of a string of accolades, Golan Heights Winery recently received the Gran Vinitaly Special Award at the 19th International Vinitaly 2011 Wine Competition in Verona, Italy, where it placed first as the best wine producer out of 1,000 competitors from 30 countries. The award is given to the wine producer achieving the best overall results. Golan earned two of Vinitaly’s 16 coveted Grand Gold Medals, one for its 2009 Yarden Chardonnay Odem Organic Vineyard and the second for its 2008 Yarden Heights Wine.  A panel of 105 leading winemakers and wine journalists selected the winners in blind tastings.

A bottle of 2005 Yarden Heights dessert wine

“We are extremely proud of being the first Israeli winery to be named the best wine producer at Vinitaly – the top award at one of the world’s most prominent wine competitions,” said Anat Levi, CEO of Golan Heights Winery.

Golan Heights Winery was founded in 1983 by eight collective farms, and markets its Yarden, Gamla and Golan brands to Japan, Hong Kong, China, Scandinavia, Germany, Poland, France, Italy, the US, Brazil and Costa Rica. It also owns the Galil Mountain Winery. “We don’t make each wine every year, on principle” head winemaker Schoenfeld explains, “It depends on the character of the harvest. But we generally make 30-plus different wines each year, and we have come to learn where the different varieties thrive. Over the last decade, we have started to make more and more single vineyard wines, wines that reflect a very specific geographical spot. Wine lovers have found these to be very interesting and gratifying.”

Within the prime Mediterranean winegrowing region, Israelis blessed with a unique combination of  latitude, elevation and volcanic soil – all key factors in winemaking. Latitude and elevation affect temperatures, and differences of  just a few degrees among its vineyards account for the ability to make a range of wine styles.

Golan Heights Winery has won past Vinitaly Grand Gold Medals for its Cabernet Sauvignon, sparkling wine, Chardonnay and dessert styles, and was named best foreign winery at the Prague Trophy 2008 international wine competition. The head winemaker says he is “confident that our wines will be even better five years from now, and even better in 10 years. We have a wine growing region that is exceptional and we are still working to exploit the potential of the Golan Heights

Tending the vines at the Golan Heights vineyards

For further reading please click here


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Categories : Agricultural

Robots and Crops

21 04 2011

Robotics researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have received a $1.3 million grant to develop intelligent sensing and manipulation algorithms for robots that can detect the ripest fruits and vegetables in a crop, allowing farmers to pick a harvest that will yield the highest value. The project is part of “cRops” (Clever Robots for Crops), a European Union Seventh Framework program. cRops will develop the scientific know-how and several prototype systems to harvest greenhouse peppers, orchard fruits and premium wine grapes. The highly configurable, modular platform system will consist of a robot, transported on a carrier along with manipulators and “intelligent tools” such as sensors, algorithms, sprayers and grippers, that can be adapted to new tasks and conditions. The cRops robotic platform will be able to detect the fruit, sense its ripeness, and then grasp and softly detach only the ripe fruit. It will also be capable of targeted spraying during the growing process.

Ben-GurionUniversity’s role in the project will be to lead the development of intelligent sensing and manipulation algorithms. “An agricultural robot must be equipped with intelligence so as to be able to robustly operate in the unstructured, dynamic and hostile agricultural environment,” explains BGU project leader Prof. Yael Edan of the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management. “We are developing an autonomous robotic platform that will reliably and accurately judge which produce is ready for harvest, and skip the ones that aren’t.” Because developing such a concept requires a strong multidisciplinary approach, the BGU team also includes Dr. Ohad Ben Shahar of the Department of Computer Science, Dr. Amir Shapiro of the Department of Mechanical Eengineering, Dr. Sigal Berman of the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management and Prof. Helman Stern of the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management.

 

 

For further reading please click  here


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Categories : Agricultural

Got Milk?

14 03 2011

In the largest project of its kind in the world and the biggest ever undertaken by an Israeli firm, 30,000 dairy cows are being flown to Vietnam to supply about 80 million gallons of milk annually as part of a $500 million dairy farm project.
“This is a very large operation,” says Daniel Hojman, the Uruguay-born manager of dairy farming professional compliance for SAE Afikim, based in Kibbutz Afikim near the Sea of Galilee. With employees from 10 Israeli companies who are relocating to Vietnam to implement the project, this is quite an understatement.
 
The company, whose AfiMilk and AfiFarm computerized systems for modern dairy farm and herd management are globally-recognized, won a five-year contract to manage a new Vietnamese corporation’s goal to boost milk production and consumption to unprecedented levels in this socialist republic.
 
Since implementing the effort last February, 1,500 heifers land in Vietnam every 50 days after making a three-week ocean journey. In five years, 30,000 cows will be producing milk at 12 state-of-the-art mega dairies and a milk processing plant where they will supply about 80 million gallons per year. Today, the average Vietnamese drinks 3 gallons of milk each year – most of it made from imported milk powder – compared to 34 gallons consumed by the average Israeli. Each dairy cow in Vietnam produces about 925 gallons a year, or one-third of the output for an Israeli heifer. With the assistance of great Israeli innovation, the face of milk production in Vietnam will be forever changed.

Hojman sees the vast venture as a working advertisement for Israel’s expertise in all the industries involved. “I hope that our ability to manage this kind of huge operation will reflect on all the companies’ reputations to everyone’s advantage,” he says.

Israeli company, SAE Afikim is helping Vietnam develop its dairy industry, in the largest project of its kind in the world.

For further reading please click  here


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Categories : Agricultural

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