Agri Econ 18: Israel's Modern, High Tech Farming

Two weeks ago, I attended an agricultre seminar given by the Israel embassy here in Manila, to interested Filipino farmers and farm owners/managers. A friend and co-parent at TSAA, Noel Sandicon informed me about the seminar. Presentations were made by Eitan Neubauer, Counselor for Intl. Development Corp. (MASHAV), Science and Agriculture, Israeli Embassy in Beijing.

Some data in their dairy farming productivity.

I was amazed by their high tech farming, very high farm productivity.

Water for irrigation is a big problem, rainy season is only 3 months a year. The main solution is using effluent, used water by households and companies, transported several kilometers away for treatment, and use the treated water for irrigation. The share of effluent water is rising.

Since 60 percent of its land area is desert, plus the need for residential, commercial, industrial zones on the remaining 40 percent, agricultural land is very small. Thus, soil less farming via hydroponics is common. Private sector dynamism and innovation is very clear.

One application of biotech, genetic engineering and producing a GMO, long shelf-life tomatoes. Fantastic.

Fertigation means fertilizers + irrigation. So the water that passes through the tubes that nourish the roots contain exact amount of fertilizers that the crops need, depending on their age (in days). One advantage of hydroponics and soil-less farming, is that the crops are automatic organic. Bacteria, fungi, etc. normally live and multiply in the soil. Since there is no soil involved, no bacteria or fungi enters the crops. Zero pesticides, zero insecticides, zero fungicides.

Fantastic how they drastically controlled (but not totally eradicate of course), a big pest that can cause huge crop damage, the Mediterranean fruit fly.

One big problem in PH mangos, big headache actually, is cecid fly or "kurikong manga". When they attack, you can expect up to total crop failure. We have zero mango harvest in our farm the past 3 or 4 years already because of this pest, which is invisible to the naked eye.

Cantaloupe via genetic engineering again, a new GMO. Nice and safe to eat.

I assume that it's all private companies developing these scientific progress. The Israeli government is busy with security matters so the private sector should be busy with innovation and enterprise competition at the global scale.

I am not aware if similar high-tech dairy farms are existing in the PH. Almost all of our powdered milk are imported, the bottled or boxed liquid milk may be locally produced but they are not exactly cheap.

To harvest 600-1,500 kgs of fish on a small, 1,000 sq. m. (1/10 of an hectare) pool is too high. One can feed hundreds of people with just one hectare of land area, continuously, all year round. Fantastic.

I admire the Israeli private sector for these and other scientific breakthrough in agriculture and food production. Food supply will never be a problem in the planet as the trend is rising food output per hectare of land area. "More food for less resources" is the default mode of modern agriculture.

Governments should step back from agri bureaucratism. Like food trade protectionism (DA's rice QR, NFA's rice importation monopoly, etc.), anti-GMO legislation and regulations, and endless, no time table agrarian reform (forced land redistribution) like what we have in the PH until now.

The five presentations by Mr. Neubauer is available here.

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See also:
Agri Econ 14: NO to Further Extension of Agrarian Reform, July 03, 2014 
Agri Econ 15: Why do Thailand and Vietnam Produce More Rice than the PH?, January 27, 2015 
Agri Econ 16: Seeds for Mankind, February 27, 2015
Agri Econ 17: Why NFA Marketing Function Should be Removed,  February 28, 2015

Pilipinas Forum 4: GMOs are good, August 31, 2012
GMOs, Greenpeace and Public Health, January 15, 2014
Sweden Seminar 3: Field Trips, 2003, June 21, 2014 
Kurikong Mangga or Cecid Fly, Huge Crop Losses, March 16, 2015

Unrest in MidEast Africa 10: Israel-Hamas War 2012

This is my article last Friday in the online magazine with the original title, "Tolerance, Co-existence and the Middle East Conflict", http://thelobbyist.biz/index.php/perspectives/less-government/item/125-tolerance-co-existence-and-the-middle-east-conflict

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The world is modernizing, people and goods are becoming more mobile across countries and continents, and diversity and spontaneity among people is expanding. This new situation calls for more tolerance, to recognize such diversity among people without resorting to violence. Tolerance of people diversity guided by existing rules and respect for the rights of other people to co-exist will ensure peace in the planet.

This is not happening in the Middle East as shown by the recent eight-days war between the Palestine in Gaza and Israel. A truce became effective on November 22 brokered by the governments of Egypt and the US. But this seems to be another temporary respite from another war.

The main problem in the Middle East conflict is the lack of respect or recognition for peaceful co-existence between the Palestine and Israel. While the latter recognizes the former’s right of existence, the latter, especially the Hamas militants, does not show the same attitude.

After the six-days war in 1967 where many Arab nations simultaneously attacked Israel but they were all defeated and they all retreated, Israel could have abolished Gaza from the map and allowed only the West Bank as the homeland for the Palestinians, but they did not. In contrast, Hamas wants nothing but the total abolition of Israel from the map and the whole of Israel will become a homeland for the Palestinians. Peaceful co-existence is a strange or even a non-acceptable word for Hamas and other Arab militants.

As long as Hamas and other Arab militants want the total abolition of Israel, war in that area will be endless as Israel will defend itself and its people. And since Israel has the economic and military superiority over the Palestinians, then in any war between the two, damage and casualty will always be larger on the Palestine side.

When Israel conducted those aerial attacks and bombings, many Palestinian civilians, most likely family members and neighbors of Hamas militants, were injured or killed. To avoid or minimize high civilian casualties, Hamas militants should have their own military installations away from houses and schools. They can fire rockets from there, not from houses, schools or other civilian structures.

A quick look at the Middle East map would show that Syria and Jordan, next to the West Bank, have huge lands. Can they donate a portion of their lands for their brother Palestinians?

 

Egypt too has a huge land area, can they also donate some land to their brother Palestinians in Gaza? Why insist on the abolition of Israel from the map? Israel land area is actually very small compared to those of Jordan, Saudi, Iraq, Egypt, Syria and Iran.

Israel must also temper the fundamentalists among its citizens like those who expand Jewish settlements in contested territories or those considered neutral grounds with the West Bank.

A friend from Pakistan, Zubair Malik, argued that “Victory has many fathers, defeat has none! I wish you should have seen the plight of Palestinian before commenting. Houses destroyed, innocent women and children killed. Have Fear of God and this applies to both Israel and Palestinians . Every Human Life irrespective of color or creed has a right to peaceful existence.”

I told Zubair that like him and many other people around the world, I also wish to see PEACE anywhere in the world. No more rockets to land anywhere, no more jet fighters dropping bombs, nor tanks and ground fighting. I even wish that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) be abolished someday along with the evaporation of armed revolution by the communist New People’s Army (NPA). We need to have more tolerance, more respect for human rights, more respect for the right to existence of other people other than our color, religion, or cultural belief, and settle disputes in non-violent means.

The old formula of "banish Israel from the planet" is formulation of deep intolerance, of deep hatred and non-recognition of diversity among people, So long as such intolerance and desire for physical annihilation of another group of people persists, the war in that region will be endless. And when there is war, there is high casualty of civilians, their houses, schools, other structures.

I stumbled upon this document, the Hamas Charter.

"The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! there is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!" -- Article Seven, Hamas Charter (1988) .

Why is there such explicit, categorical exhortation to hatred and murder? Why this deep intolerance?

The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank seems to be more tolerant compared to Hamas in Gaza. From the Hamas Charter of 1988, there was heavy reference to Allah, their literature can mislead non-Muslim readers into believing that the explicit hatred and categorical violence that they espouse is consistent with the Muslim faith, which is not true.

Now that a truce and ceasefire is in effect, we can sigh with relief that the rockets and air attacks on both sides have stopped. Let us hope that a lasting peace can prevail in that region, whether it will take a thousand years or more. Respect for diversity among people is our key to building a prosperous and peaceful planet.

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See also:

Israel-Hezbollah war, August 08, 2006

Unrest in MidEast-Africa 4: Libya succession, February 26, 2011

Unrest in MidEast-Africa 5: Gadhafi wealth, March 01, 2011
Unrest in MidEast-Africa 6: Should US jets enter Libya?, March 08, 2011 
Unrest in MidEast-Africa 7: Cry for freedom, March 11, 2011 
Unrest in MidEast-Africa 8: Bahrain rebellion, March 16, 2011
Unrest in MidEast-Africa 9: Gaddafi falldown, August 24, 2011