The truth about Israeli innovation

In the distant Middle East, there is a country that makes us feel extremely mysterious-Israel.

It is a small country about the same size as Beijing, surrounded by the hostile Arab world, and ethnic conflicts remain chaotic without being cleared up... These have long made us think that Israel is a country in the desert, experienced vicissitudes of life, and full of war.

However, when we look deeply into this country, we find that the real Israel is actually a modern country with a prosperous economy, advanced science and technology, and a beautiful environment. Its scientific and technological level even exceeds that of Japan, Canada, China, India and other countries.

Agricultural Miracles in the Desert Since the Middle Ages, Jews have been living in Europe for hundreds of years and have been bullied for a long time. After Hitler came to power and conquered Europe, Nazi Germany carried out a crazy genocidal policy against the Jews throughout Europe, which brought the Jews to the point of near extinction.

In 1948, Jews established the State of Israel with the support of the United Nations Security Council.

This nation, which had suffered years of persecution and bullying, finally had a land of their own.

But this land is desolate and barren, with vast stretches of yellow sand everywhere, almost no arable land, and very little water. The Israelis faced severe challenges from the beginning.

However, within a few decades, the Israelis quickly achieved self-sufficiency in food and a great variety of food, and created many agricultural miracles in this desert that amazed the world.

For example, Israel is now the world's second-largest flower exporter after the Netherlands. The vast desert has long been transformed into fertile fields full of flowers. It has won the reputation of "Europe's Fruit Basket" and has cultivated a wide variety of high-yield and stable flowers.

and pollution-free, high-quality fruits and vegetables (such as the famous "Desert Red" tomatoes), which can be sold well in markets such as the European Union and the United States that adhere to the highest quality standards; in addition, Israel has truly become "a land flowing with milk and honey," with an average

The annual milk production of a cow ranks first in the world (about 12 tons). People consume more than 500 grams of honey per capita every year, relying entirely on domestic production.

The contrast between Israel's extremely unfavorable natural conditions for agriculture and its extremely developed modern agriculture may be the strongest among all countries in the world. So, how did Israel's agriculture take off?

Water-saving agriculture taken to the extreme Israel is located in an area with drought, high temperature, and little rainfall. It is a country where water is as expensive as oil. Therefore, Israelis have been working hard to develop water sources and develop water-saving agriculture.

In the 1950s, the Israeli government began to implement the large-scale "North-South Water Diversion Project" in order to transport water from Lake Tiberias in the northeast to the arid and water-deficient southern desert.

This can be called the most important project since the founding of Israel. It cost more than 100 million US dollars and was put into use in the early 1960s.

By the 1980s, the water transmission pipeline of the "North-South Water Diversion Project" had been extended to about 300 kilometers in the north-south direction. At the same time, water supply pipelines radiated outward and were connected to the water supply pipeline networks in various regions, forming a unified national water supply system.

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Thanks to the "North-South Water Diversion", Israel was able to develop irrigation in the southern desert hundreds of kilometers away from water sources, and large areas of barren land began to turn into oases.

At the same time, Israel has also made revolutionary breakthroughs in water-saving agriculture.

In 1962, an Israeli farmer, Smeha Boras, accidentally discovered that a plant in his garden was growing well. The reason was that the water pipe used to water the flowers happened to have a very small break, and small water droplets continued to seep out, causing the plant to grow well.

The plant remains moist at all times.

Boras suddenly thought: small water droplets seeping out little by little not only help plant growth, but also reduce evaporation, and the irrigation effect is naturally good.

If this "drip irrigation" method can be applied to the barren southern desert, it is likely to create unexpected miracles.

As a result, Boras conceived the overall layout of irrigation and invented the world's most advanced water-saving irrigation method-drip irrigation.

To put it simply, Boras's drip irrigation system is to lay water pipes in the soil at the roots of plants, and open holes on the side of the pipes. Equipped with micro switches, only water and fertilizer are slowly dripped to the roots of the crops, achieving the goal of "watering the plants, not the plants."

Soil water saving effect.

However, in order to allow water and fertilizer to penetrate into each crop evenly, drip irrigation needs to solve many technical problems. For example, the materials of plastic pipes and drippers must ensure that they are not clogged under the scorching sun and wind and sand, and the pipes must not be blocked.

Paid carefully, the flow of water droplets and the concentration of fertilizer need to be reasonably controlled.

However, the Israeli government has a keen eye for gold and is willing to spend efforts to improve and promote dropper technology.

So far, Israel's drip irrigation technology has been updated to the sixth generation. If the dripper equipment is properly maintained, it can be used continuously for 20 years. The computer intelligent control system has also been introduced by Israeli scientists into the entire drip irrigation system.

Facts have proved that the benefits of drip irrigation are amazing.

After Israel promoted drip irrigation technology, the cultivated land area increased from 1,600 square kilometers to 4,400 square kilometers, and the irrigated area expanded from 300 square kilometers to 2,600 square kilometers. While the total agricultural water consumption in the country remained stable, agricultural output increased.

An astonishing increase of more than ten times compared to the founding period.

High technology teaches you how to farm. In addition to rational use of water resources, Israelis attach great importance to the strategy of promoting agriculture through science and technology.