Israel’s water and agricultural technologies didn’t emerge from ideal conditions. They were developed under pressure: low rainfall, saline water, political isolation, lack of energy resources, and the constant need to feed a growing population with limited land. Over the years, I’ve written about many of these companies not as miracle-makers, but as problem-solvers. That’s what makes them relevant to places like Somaliland. Israel was the first country in the world to recognize Somaliland as an independent state although Ethiopia has been treating the nation as such for decades.

Below are 10 technologies, and the Israeli companies behind them, that could realistically support Somaliland’s long-term food, water, and energy resilience.

The first is drip irrigation, pioneered by Netafim, founded in the 1960s on Kibbutz Hatzerim after engineer Simcha Blass noticed that slow, targeted watering produced healthier plants. Netafim’s systems are now used worldwide to cut water use while increasing yields, especially in dry regions.

Closely related is low-pressure irrigation and fertigation, advanced by companies like NaanDanJain and Rivulis. These systems work well for smallholder farmers, allowing nutrients and water to be delivered together with minimal waste.

For water supply, desalination technology developed by IDE Technologies has transformed Israel’s water security. While IDE is best known for large plants, the company has also developed smaller-scale systems suitable for coastal communities, which could be relevant for Somaliland’s long shoreline.

In parallel, solar-powered water pumping systems—used widely in Israel’s peripheral regions—can replace diesel pumps. While not a single-company solution, Israeli integrators often combine solar technology from firms like SolarEdge with water systems to power wells, treatment units, and irrigation without fuel imports.

Another promising approach is wastewater reuse, an area where Israel leads globally. Municipal-scale treatment combined with agricultural reuse has been refined through decades of practice, with engineering firms and public utilities supporting reuse rates that reach nearly 90 percent. Scaled-down versions of these systems could help Somaliland’s towns reuse water safely rather than losing it entirely.

In agriculture, greenhouse and net-house farming has been advanced by Israeli companies such as Hishtil, which supplies seedlings and controlled-growing solutions designed for heat and water stress. These systems allow year-round production of vegetables with far less water than open-field farming.

Precision agriculture has also become more accessible through Israeli startups like CropX and Phytech, which use soil sensors and plant data to tell farmers exactly when to irrigate. Even basic versions of these tools can significantly reduce water waste.

On the seed side, Israeli breeders such as Hazera and Zeraim Gedera (now part of Syngenta) have developed heat- and drought-tolerant vegetable varieties suited for semi-arid climates. Crop genetics matter as much as irrigation in a warming world.

Food loss after harvest is another overlooked challenge. Israeli cold-chain innovations, including solar-powered cold rooms used across Africa, help reduce spoilage and increase farmer incomes. These systems don’t require a national grid and can be deployed at cooperative or village scale.

Finally, there is knowledge transfer, often the most underestimated technology of all. Israel’s international development agency MASHAV has trained tens of thousands of farmers and water managers worldwide through hands-on programs focused on dryland agriculture, water reuse, and cooperative farming. Technology adoption succeeds when training is local, practical, and gradual.

None of these tools promise instant prosperity. But together, they form a practical toolkit shaped by environments not unlike Somaliland’s own. In a region too often discussed only through politics or security, focusing on water, food, and energy systems offers a quieter, more durable path forward.

The post 10 Proven Israeli Technologies to Help Somaliland Build Food, Water, and Energy Security appeared first on Green Prophet.

Last week, the most advanced Earth-mapping satellite ever built left Earth to watch over it. The joint NASA–ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite launched from India’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre into sun-synchronous orbit. This powerful radar sentinel will orbit the planet every 12 days, capturing changes on Earth’s surface in astonishing detail—down to a few centimeters—whether in daylight, darkness, or through thick clouds and vegetation.

Related: Make Sunsets geo-engineers climate with cooling credits

While the technology may sound like science fiction, NISAR’s mission is urgently practical: to track our changing planet and provide a planetary MRI scan every two weeks. The implications for climate, agriculture, disaster preparedness, and sustainable development are profound—and entrepreneurs are already eyeing the satellite’s open data streams as a platform for innovation.

Developed over a decade by NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), NISAR is equipped with dual-frequency L- and S-band synthetic aperture radars, making it the first satellite of its kind. This unique combination allows it to detect subtle shifts in Earth’s crust, vegetation, ice sheets, and even groundwater levels.

Its potential applications are wide-ranging: In the Arctic, NISAR will track how fast Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are melting.

In Indonesia or the Amazon, it will monitor deforestation, peatland collapse, and forest biomass.

In urban zones, NISAR can observe subsiding infrastructure, helping cities adapt to rising seas and overextraction of groundwater.

NASA’s Earth Science Division Director Karen St. Germain called it “the most advanced radar system for Earth observation we’ve ever put into orbit.”

For India, this is a leap into space-enabled environmental management. For a warming planet, data is power. By measuring the movement of glaciers, the expansion of wetlands, or the sinking of deltas, NISAR offers vital intelligence for managing climate adaptation and natural disasters.

Every region, from coastal cities to desert farms, is going to be impacted by changes NISAR can see coming,” says Karin Kloosterman, the editor of Green Prophet. This technology is like giving Earth a health checkup every two weeks. Existing startups in agtech, climate, solar, energy and mining will be improved with this robust new data. Thousands of exciting new opportunities in sustainable and clean tech await.”

Critically, NISAR’s data will be publicly available. That means not only scientists and governments, but also nonprofits, local planners, and startups can build tools and services using the data.

Entrepreneurs, take note. NISAR’s raw power is just the beginning—it’s what we do with it that matters. A few promising directions:

Disaster tech startups could build risk maps and alert systems for earthquakes, landslides, or floods based on ground deformation data.

Agri-tech companies can combine NISAR’s soil moisture and terrain maps with AI to help farmers in Africa or the Middle East optimize irrigation.

Climate risk insurers may use NISAR insights to assess premiums for homes near eroding coastlines or unstable hills.

Carbon credit marketplaces can verify reforestation or wetland projects through updated biomass assessments, ensuring transparency and accountability.

At a time when political uncertainty has cast doubt on future U.S. funding for Earth science missions, NISAR is a bright spot. But it could be among the last of NASA’s major Earth-monitoring projects for years if proposed budget cuts by U.S. lawmakers take effect.

Related: The history of drip irrigation

Still, the baton may be passing. By building collaborative platforms around satellites like NISAR, we can democratize access to Earth data and decentralize its benefits. In the face of floods, droughts, fires, and rising seas, it’s not just the scientists who will act—it’s technologists, policymakers, and concerned citizens who will rise to the challenge.

As climate change accelerates, our window to act narrows. With NISAR watching from above, we gain a clearer view of where the planet hurts—and where we still have time to heal.

The post The Satellite That Sees Earth Breathe: How NISAR Could Transform Sustainability From Space appeared first on Green Prophet.

Red Sea helps farmers prosper near dead or dying aquifers

RedSea LLC, a company founded in the heat of Saudi Arabia has cracked the code for sustainably growing plants in high heat conditions. They offer the answer to increasing cultivation on dead and dying aquifers. 

Growing food in greenhouses in a European winter makes sense. The Dutch invented the idea in the 1800s when botanist Charles Lucien Bonaparte wanted to grow medicinal plants in Leiden. These greenhouses retain heat in the enclosures, allowing cultivation even during the cold Northern European winter months. 

Hydroponics –– or growing trees and plants in a water medium with nutrients –– is having a moment now but it started with a California botanist in the 1800s and was perfected in the 90s by cannabis growers in Canada. Hydroponics tech is now used for growing salads in food deserts everywhere. Hydro-grown has its challenges, and high costs, however.

Drip irrigation, designed to precisely control the delivery of scarce water and costly fertilizer directly to plant roots is credited to the Polish-Israeli agronomist Simcha Blass. This solution allowed cultivation in arid climates where the growing season was limited. More recently, American-Israeli Daniel Hillel received the World Food Prize for devising drip irrigation systems in the developing world and this technology, delivered by companies like Netafim and Rivulis, is now a multi-billion dollar global business.

Climate change and increasing world temperatures now presents additional challenges for agriculture –– especially where climates are becoming more hostile, and water less available. A growing world population, and concerns over food security in the hottest countries in the world has shifted the focus of innovators to ask the question of how to sustainably feed this growing population, and how to overcome the challenges of cultivating in increasingly arid climates. 

RedSea LLC, a company founded in the heat of Saudi Arabia, has cracked the code for sustainably growing plants in high heat conditions and they offer the answer to increasing cultivation on dead and dying aquifers. 

The founders include an Australian plant biologist Prof. Mark Tester, known as the Indiana Jones of the plant world, Prof. Derya Baran, a leading materials scientist and Dr. Ryan Lefers, an expert on water systems and water preservation in agriculture. The trio have built a platform of technologies that adapts the best of the innovative pioneers before them in materials, AI, hydroponics, smart farms, and drip irrigation and have applied know-how in materials, water and plant genetics to sustainably grow crops in hot and dry climates. 

This starts with the water, as access to fresh water is an increasing challenge with agriculture currently using up to 70% of available fresh water to grow crops. The challenge was how to grow plants in increasingly arid conditions on dead or dying aquifers. Tester went to the Galapagos on a mission to figure it out and came home inspired by the tomato plants that he found there growing on rocks right next to the sea. 

He tells Green Prophet that he questioned whether these tomato plants could handle the salt, and if so, could they be modified to be grown commercially while reducing the draw of fresh water resources? Brackish water is saltier than water that comes from the tap and plants don’t like it. It is the water found in estuaries where rivers meet the sea. It is also the water found in aquifers near the sea or in deserts –– or in areas where climate change, and overpopulation has depleted aquifers. 

In all parts of our drought-facing world, and especially in the dry Middle East and regions of California and Texas, brackish water in damaged and dead aquifers is common. Tester has made it his life mission, and with his co-founders established a successful company now scaling into new markets, to grow food on dead and dying aquifers.

“It really depends on the crop, but when our technologies are combined this means you can build greenhouses near dead or dying aquifers. In reality there are a lot of factors in play, but this is the idea,” says Tester, pointing to a suite of agri-climate technologies RedSea has built: “The fundamental idea to address is to reduce the use of freshwater for producing fresh food and if we can do that by using more saltwater, then that is definitely a useful contribution.”

Tester was educated in the UK at Cambridge. He is a research professor at KAUST, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia.  

Perfecting saltwater greenhouses has been a quest for everyone in the Middle East. Maria Telkes, a Hungarian-American scientist laid the foundation for passive desalination greenhouses decades ago in her basic desalination kit made for providing water for soldiers at sea. Sites in Qatar and Abu Dhabi have piloted saltwater greenhouses. 

But Tester’s background is in plant biology, not just tech, furthering the understanding of salt tolerance in plants for desert agriculture. He has developed methods for developing new types of seeds that are used as a hearty rootstock which can handle brackish water. Other plants, which are not as tough, but which are tasty can be then grafted onto these rootstocks. 

“I am a plant guy and in this company I am delivering the fruits of my lifetime’s research which is fundamental science: how plants move solutes in and out of the plants, and applying it to salinity tolerance. With my co-founders Ryan Lefers and Derya Baran a suite of products was developed and commercialised that can leverage this research,” he tells Green Prophet.

Grafting is used with many varieties of plants, such as apples, cherries, roses, watermelons, nut trees, and tomato plants. Developing new types of rootstocks that can handle brackish water and other challenges such as heat and drought is the aim –– and “then we graft the edible bits on top,” says Tester.

In some cases, RedSea can graft across species, but only closely related ones: “We can graft a tomato onto a wild tomato, an eggplant onto a wild eggplant, and sometimes even a tomato onto a wild eggplant, but we can’t graft an orange onto an apple, for example. They have to be fairly closely related.”

The work of grafting also allows the farmer to extend the growing period of the plant, says Tester: “We can help tomatoes be economically productive for longer, such as from 10 months to 11 months in a greenhouse.” 

The RedSea technology works on a soil-based substrate, hydroponics or on open fields in soil: “We are developing rootstocks for all of these conditions,” says Tester.

“In tomatoes, for instance, we are working with brackish water, which is more dilute than seawater but more salty that you and I can drink, is the reality is that in many places around around the world a lot of our food is grown using groundwater and every major aquifer is being depleted. As it gets depleted, it gets salty. 

“We have few aquifers straight outside our university that have been abandoned because of that – now we can access water that’s currently not being used.”

Turning greenhouses inside out

Apart from the unique rootstocks that RedSea is providing, the company has a number of technologies now being sold in export markets. While greenhouses typically need to be heated in Holland or Canada, in the Middle East, the reverse is true. It gets too hot. So RedSea has also helped solve that problem.

They have developed a range of heat blocking greenhouse covers. These are based on additives that can be incorporated into any polymer based cover that blocks damaging heat from penetrating into the greenhouses –– a product called iyris SecondSky which incorporates a nanoparticle technology invented by Baran.

“Derya developed a nanoparticle that when dispersed in plastics absorbs near infrared radiation – which in layman’s terms translates to heat. This absorption of the heat load that would otherwise be damaging to plant health delivers a huge reduction of the resources that are needed in such structures to control the climate and manage plant health in the greenhouse,” says Tester.

The technology can be easily Integrated into standard plastic greenhouse covers, be that polycarbonate, polyethylene or net, resulting in a product that is a one for one replacement of standard greenhouse covers – just better –  because the heat blocking is already integrated into the plastic during the manufacturing process. This means that there is very little compromising impact on the PAR (photosynthetic active radiation) transmission through the cover compared to alternative heat blocking methods. 

Alternative heat blocking solutions include additional reflective films, chalking or internal shade screens, which are, in the case of films, expensive, an operational nuisance and potentially degrading to the plastic. In the case of chalking and compromise the PAR transmission within the greenhouse. Results achieved with the use of SecondSky have been impressive, Tester reports.

Ryan Lefers, the CEO of RedSea explained more about the potential of how disruptive this integrated heat blocking can be within high heat regions: “Greenhouse technology has become highly developed in Northern European countries such as the Netherlands, offering a solution to keep heat in winter so that crops could be grown out of season, but here in the Middle East and over vast areas of the planet we need to keep the heat out in summer, so our thinking was to take the original greenhouse and turn it inside out,” he tells Green Prophet.

“Water scarcity is another major challenge, so finding ways to operate farms with a lower environmental impact, while empowering farmers to continue to farm without an expectation that they make fundamental changes in the way that they farm was a key driver for us.”

The saltwater greenhouse dream

In facilities where SecondSky is installed, farmers can save up to 30% on water and fertilizer use when compared to hydroponic systems and up to 90% compared to soil based cultivation. Many farms also use a reverse pressure pad and fan cooling system in the region to assist in coping with the extreme temperatures. Farmers can save up to an additional 32% in energy costs once a SecondSky cover is installed. 

RedSea has developed an add-on to their technology suite that enables farmers to use brackish water in these cooling systems further reducing the environmental impact of farming in hot climates.

RedSea was founded in 2018, and to date has raised a total of about $36.5 million USD. Saudi Arabia’s oil company Aramco through their investment fund Wa’ed is among the investors. A new Series A funding round will close shortly, adding investors and additional funds for the company’s planned expansion. 

Rapid growth of sales and revenues is the company’s focus at the moment, with expansions into other countries. RedSea technology is being sold through manufacturers and distributors, but also directly to farms. There are installations in 16 countries to date and this number is growing.

But Tester, a plant guy at heart with a passion for the environment, has his eye on the bigger prize: “We wanted to have a company that is profitable and truly sustainable and highly impactful –– where we are across the world developing and selling technologies to reduce the environmental footprint of our food productions in both developed and developing countries. 

“And that’s where we came from ––  Ryan and me. We started with this idea of increasing sustainability in agriculture in developing countries ––  that’s in the DNA of the company.”

The post RedSea cracks the code for hot climate saltwater greenhouses  appeared first on Green Prophet.

iyris delivers more resilient and reliable produce.

Iyris, a company from Saudi Arabia founded by foreign nationals, makes it easier to grow the likes of tomatoes – one of the world’s biggest fresh produce and processing crops – in environments increasingly impacted by climate change. The patented process, which tackles the challenges of hot climates, has the potential to revolutionize where crops are grown to address global food security issues. We interviewed one of the founders Mark Tester earlier this year on the innovation he championed. The company used to be marketed under RedSea Farms.

Their newly patented polyploid hybridization grafting process – mimics and significantly accelerates the natural evolutionary process of breeding genetic resilience into plant rootstocks. With this groundbreaking innovation, farmers can address, without having to change the way that they farm their land, their most urgent need: reliable, resistant crops that can mitigate and combat climate change.

The technology makes crops more resilient to stressful abiotic environments (e.g., salt, drought, heat and pests) delivering higher yields for farmers and reducing crop failure risk. The timescale and predictability of genetic resilience trait integration is significantly accelerated compared to previous methods. 

Related: How Daniel Hillel pioneered drip irrigation

Commercial trials of iyris’ current hybrid grafted diploid rootstocks, delivered an average 20-25% tomato plant yield increase over the best performing commercial alternatives. Expectations are that using this patented polyploid breeding process, yield increases will be even more significant. Results to date have demonstrated that polyploids can double yields when compared to diploids. 

Uniquely, iyris’ plant science innovation allows multiple plant traits to be integrated simultaneously. Previously, scientists and breeders targeted single traits and experienced low predictability rates for even a single integration.

“These achievements in plant science are unprecedented and a significant moment in our mission to feed the world sustainably. iyris can now offer farmers a commercially validated and reliable solution addressing the environmental and economic challenges of today – in tomatoes alone, that’s worth billions of dollars annually,” says John Keppler, Executive Chairperson of iyris.

iyris’ published rootstock patent – ‘Polyploidization of interspecific tomato hybrids to create stable and fertile rootstocks’ follows decades of work and research, most recently at Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), led by iyris co-founder, Professor Mark Tester – the world’s pre-eminent plant scientist. Professor Tester’s thesis developed from research (with his then – PhD student, Yveline Pailles) into resilient relatives of the tomato growing on sea-facing rock faces in the Galapagos Islands.   

With increasing global temperature, and dwindling freshwater resources, ground-breaking innovative agriculture solutions are vital to break the food-water-energy nexus. The impact of climate change on global farming is becoming starker every year, and global food production is estimated to need to increase by 50%, by 2050, to feed soaring population rates. iyris’ innovation is perfectly timed given its potential to change the way that crops are grown, allow sustainable agriculture in previously unviable territories for farming and protect farmers from crop failure risk. 

Related: Lycored makes kosher and halal, non-animal tomato-based dyes

With its resilient hybrid tomato rootstocks already available in the market, iyris has proven the commercial viability of their technology in open-field trials. iyris has partnerships with two of the world’s largest tomato producers, with more commercial agreements to come. iyris hybrid rootstocks outperformed the best available alternatives across multiple crop seasons, hybrid tomato rootstocks sales have already exceeded 1 million units.  

The market context is extremely positive. The processed tomato market (2023 data) is estimated at US$51.8 billion with 182 million tons produced annually. iyris and Professor Tester have already started research into other plant groups such as eggplants, melons and pumpkins, with the potential to increase commercial results and improve resilience exponentially.

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We’ve all heard about the UN Climate Conference. COP29, was the latest and held in Baku. While there is much ado about these UN conferences bringing in diplomats from around the world to hobnob about the planet, most of the work gets done between the events. The UN climate event has a much lesser known cousin and it’s a COP for land, unattractively marketed as the NCCD COP and this year marks NCCD COP16, coinciding with the convention’s 30th anniversary. It will be the first time the event is held in the Middle East, in Saudi Arabia, an area most impacted by desertification, land degradation, and drought. 

Saudi is pouring its heart into globalizing and attracting international investment, manufacturing, tourism. Its development of NEOM is the flagship for modernizing and revolutionising the country on the global stage. But leaders are taking note that the West is interested in developing ancient customs like Slow Food in Saudi Arabia and the country has started making electric cars (Ceer), and investing in research teams to study its archeological past. Saudi is putting itself in the center of the stage for football, culture and issues that matter to to the West and East.

Despite the prevailing stereotype that the Kingdom is a desert country, deserts only represent 31.75 percent of its diverse surface features. Still, water is scarce and aquifers are depleted and research institutes like KAUST are investing in new tech in areas like hydroponics (see Red Sea Farms – Iris) to grow food in the desert using brackish water. Saudi Arabia is also undertaking a massive project to plant a million mangrove trees, an effort to stop desertification.

When we were interviewing the Saudi-based Red Sea Farms about impacts against desertification Mark Tester mentioned American-Israeli Daniel Hillel as a force for combatting desertification in the Middle East through his work and research on drip irrigation.

But you came here for Land Cop. So what’s happening and how you can get involved. At this year’s CCD COP16, countries are expected to work with a dual approach, one through a negotiation track focusing on land restoration, drought resilience, and land tenure, and an action agenda focusing on voluntary commitments and actions on land, resilience, and people to reach the following goals:

• Scale up land restoration efforts to restore 1.5 billion hectares of the globe by 2030
• Boost resilience to intensifying droughts, sand and dust storms
• Restore soil health and scale up nature-positive food production
• Secure land rights and promote equity for sustainable land stewardship
• Ensure that land continues to provide climate and biodiversity solutions
• Unlock economic opportunities, including decent land-based jobs for youth

What the UNCCD Focuses on

1- Land Degradation

• Up to 40 percent of the world’s land is degraded.
• The global area impacted by land degradation is approx. 15 million km², more than the entire continent of Antarctica or nearly the size of Russia. It is also expanding each year by about 1 million km²
• 46% of the global land area is classified as drylands, and 75% of Africa is considered dryland. 
• The efficiency of Nitrogen fertilizers is only 46% and 66% for Phosphorus; the rest runs off, with dire consequences for soils.
• Degraded soils lower crop yields and nutritional quality, directly impacting the livelihoods of vulnerable populations.
• Agricultural subsidies often incentivize harmful practices, fueling water overuse and biogeochemical imbalances. Aligning these subsidies with sustainability goals is critical for effective land management.
• Every dollar invested in restoring degraded lands brings between $7-30 in economic returns. Policy and economic incentives are urgently needed to unlock a trillion-dollar restoration economy.  

2- Drought Resilience

According to the International Drought Resilience Alliance (IDRA), which is a coalition of 36 countries and 28 international organizations aiming to tackle drought risks:

• Droughts have increased by 29 percent since 2000.
• From 1998 to 2017, drought generated economic losses of about US$124 billion across the world.
• 1.84 billion people are drought-stricken, of which 4.7 per cent are exposed to severe or extreme drought and 85 percent live in low or middle-income countries.
• Investing in drought resilience is one of the most cost-effective actions countries and regions can take, with returns of up to 10 times the initial investment.

3- People & Land Tenure

• Drought, land degradation, and desertification disproportionately affect women, girls, indigenous peoples, local communities, and vulnerable groups like people with disabilities.
• One billion young people living in developing regions are dependent on land and natural resources. Achieving global land restoration commitments requires youth involvement. 
• Areas managed by local communities are characterized by lower rates of deforestation and land degradation. Preserving traditional and local knowledge and recognizing its key role in land restoration is crucial.
• The impacts of land degradation disproportionately affect tropical and low-income countries, both because they are less resilient and because the impacts are concentrated in tropical and arid regions. 
• Women, youth, Indigenous peoples, and local communities also bear the brunt of environmental decline. Women face increased workloads and health risks, while children suffer from malnutrition and educational setbacks.

The UNCCD COP16 (Land COP) will start on Monday, December 2nd. It will be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from December 2nd to 13th. It is the first time a desertification COP will be held in the Middle East.

UNCCD COP16 Agenda in Riyadh

• Land Day (4 December): Focus on the role of healthy land in addressing climate change, job creation, and poverty alleviation, with emphasis on nature-based solutions and private sector engagement. 

• Agri-Food Systems Day (5 December): Highlighting sustainable farming practices for resilient crops, healthy soils, and ecosystem protection. 
• Governance Day (6 December): Exploring inclusive land governance and policies to strengthen equitable land management. 
• People’s Day (7 December): Emphasizing the involvement of youth, women, and civil society in land-related decision-making. 
• Science, Technology & Innovation Day (9 December): Aims to accelerate scientific advancements for land health and resilience. 
• Resilience Day (10 December): Focus on policies and technologies that foster resilience to climate change.

Finance Day (11 December): Aims to showcase innovative financial mechanisms supporting land restoration and drought resilience.

The post What is Land “COP” in Saudi Arabia and why should we care? appeared first on Green Prophet.

Drip irrigation, a marvel of agricultural technology, has its roots in the arid landscapes of Israel and the ancient ingenuity of desert farming. Simcha Blass, an Israeli engineer, drew inspiration from the ancient qanat system, a remarkable underground aqueduct system used by ancient civilizations, and introduced the concept of drip irrigation in the 1960s, with the pioneering support of companies like Netafim.

Ancient Wisdom: The Qanat System in Desert Agriculture

Before we dive into the modern marvel of drip irrigation, let’s pay homage to the qanat system, an ancient innovation from the Middle East area that paved the way. Originating over two thousand years ago in Persia, qanats were an engineering marvel that harnessed subterranean water sources to sustain agriculture in arid regions.

The qanat system consisted of a network of underground tunnels, meticulously designed with precise gradients, that tapped into natural springs and groundwater sources. These tunnels guided water to the surface, allowing it to flow gently and steadily to fields, providing a lifeline to crops in the heart of deserts.

The brilliance of the qanat system lay in its ability to minimize water loss due to evaporation and seepage, ensuring that every precious drop of water reached its destination. This ancient wisdom served as an inspiration for modern drip irrigation, which adopted similar principles to conserve water and promote sustainable agriculture in arid regions.

The Ingenious Beginning: Blass and Netafim

Simcha Blass, an unconventional thinker from Israel, was the visionary behind drip irrigation. He questioned the conventional wisdom of irrigation methods and sought a smarter way to manage water resources. It was Netafim, founded in 1965, that took Blass’s vision and transformed it into a reality, making drip irrigation accessible to the world.

A Closer Look at Drip Irrigation

Now, let’s explore the mechanics of drip irrigation. Imagine a controlled system comprising valves, pipes, emitters, and tubing orchestrating water delivery with precision to plant roots. Unlike traditional methods that often waste water, drip irrigation is a gentle and efficient method.

Water Efficiency: Drip Irrigation’s Strong Suit

Drip irrigation excels at conserving water through these mechanisms:

• Precise Water Delivery: Water is directed precisely to plant roots, minimizing waste through evaporation and runoff.
• Root Development: Drip irrigation encourages deep root systems, reducing a plant’s dependence on surface water sources.
• Synergy with Mulch: Drip irrigation works in harmony with mulching, reducing water loss due to soil evaporation and weed growth.

Energy Efficiency: Reducing the Carbon Footprint

Beyond water conservation, drip irrigation offers impressive energy efficiency by:

• Minimizing Pump Usage: Drip irrigation eliminates the need for energy-intensive pumps to transport water over long distances.
• Reducing Water Demand: By using less water overall, it reduces the energy required for water treatment and distribution.
• Solar Synergy: Drip irrigation can be combined with solar panels, creating a renewable energy source for irrigation.
• Automation: Automated scheduling reduces the need for manual labor, contributing to energy savings.

The Multitude of Benefits of Drip Irrigation

Drip irrigation is not limited to water and energy conservation; it offers a range of advantages:

• Enhanced Plant Health: Precise water and nutrient delivery directly to plant roots result in healthier plants.
• Soil Protection: Drip irrigation minimizes soil erosion and runoff, preserving topsoil and preventing water pollution.
• Reduced Water Waste: Water is delivered only where it’s needed, reducing overspray and ensuring efficient use.
• Labor Efficiency: Automated systems reduce the labor required for irrigation management, especially in large-scale farming.
• Improved Crop Yields: Optimal water and nutrient delivery often leads to increased crop yields.
• Drought Resilience: Drip irrigation helps plants better withstand drought conditions, reducing the risk of crop loss.
• Flood Prevention: Precise water application minimizes the risk of crop damage and loss in flood-prone areas.

Drip Irrigation and Almond Trees in California

California, known for its almond orchards, has embraced drip irrigation. Almond trees require meticulous water management, making drip irrigation an ideal choice. The system ensures that each almond tree receives a calculated amount of water directly at its root zone, optimizing water use.

In the arid landscapes of California’s Central Valley, where almonds thrive, water is a precious resource. Drip irrigation not only conserves water but also reduces the energy needed for water distribution, contributing to a more sustainable and environmentally responsible almond industry. With the help of drip irrigation, California’s almond growers have been able to sustain and increase their production while minimizing the impact on water resources.

Choosing the Right Pipes for Drip Irrigation

There are four main types of drip irrigation: soaker hoses (also known as porous soaker lines), emitter systems, drip tapes, and micro-misting systems. Each system has different features.

To maximize the benefits of drip irrigation, selecting the appropriate pipes and components is also essential. Here’s a brief overview of some pipe options:

• PVC Pipes: These are the most common choice, known for their durability and cost-effectiveness. However, they may not be suitable for all soil types.
• Polyethylene Pipes: These pipes offer durability and ease of use, often at a lower cost than PVC. Soil compatibility should be considered.
• Drip Tubing: Designed specifically for drip irrigation, drip tubing is flexible and budget-friendly. Soil compatibility may be a factor to consider.

The Detrimental Impact of Plastic in Drip Irrigation: An Environmental Concern

Drip irrigation has long been celebrated as an efficient and water-saving method for crop cultivation. However, the widespread use of plastic materials in drip irrigation systems has raised significant environmental concerns. Plastic, which is non-biodegradable and often disposed of improperly, contributes to pollution and poses numerous drawbacks in the context of sustainable agriculture. Plastics and their components not only affect the soil but the food we are growing through them. Some things to think about when using drop irrigation on your farm:

Non-Biodegradability

One of the most glaring drawbacks of using plastic in drip irrigation is its non-biodegradable nature. Traditional plastics used in these systems can persist in the environment for hundreds of years, contributing to the growing problem of plastic pollution.

Microplastic Generation

As plastic components in drip irrigation systems degrade over time due to exposure to UV radiation and other environmental factors, they break down into smaller particles known as microplastics. These microplastics can find their way into the soil, water sources, and eventually, the food chain, posing a significant threat to ecosystems and human health.

Soil Contamination

Plastic materials used in drip irrigation can leach harmful chemicals and additives into the soil, contaminating the very land we rely on for agriculture. These chemicals can alter soil properties and negatively impact crop growth but also impact the life in the soil including the fungus and tiny insects, bacteria and other organisms that call the soil home.

Water Pollution

Plastic in drip irrigation systems can also lead to water pollution. When not properly managed, discarded plastic components can end up in water bodies, affecting aquatic life and water quality. Plastic debris in waterways is a pervasive environmental issue worldwide. Plastics are in the Pacific and they are showing up on remote islands.

Wildlife Threat

The presence of plastic waste in agricultural fields and irrigation canals can endanger wildlife. Animals may ingest or become entangled in plastic, resulting in injury or death. This poses a direct threat to biodiversity.

Energy Consumption

The production of plastic materials for drip irrigation systems is energy-intensive, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. The extraction, refinement, and transportation of petroleum-based plastics all consume fossil fuels and exacerbate climate change.

Landfill Overload

Discarded or worn-out plastic components from drip irrigation systems often end up in landfills, contributing to landfill overcrowding. This, in turn, can lead to leachate contamination and methane gas emissions, further contributing to environmental problems. We have already learned that most plastics are toxic to recycled and are not being recycled in the United States.

Maintenance Challenges

Plastic components in drip irrigation systems are prone to wear and tear due to exposure to UV radiation, temperature fluctuations, and physical stress. Frequent replacement and maintenance generate additional plastic waste and increase the overall environmental impact.

Limited Recycling Opportunities

Many plastic materials used in drip irrigation systems are difficult to recycle due to their unique chemical composition and the presence of additives. This results in limited recycling opportunities and, consequently, increased plastic waste. Some research is ongoing about making the plastics in drip irrigation pipes compostable. Innovation in this area from novel plant-based and organic materials is in need.

An experts weighs in

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Sitting in a field in the heart of Uzbekistan’s Fergana Valley, Shaodatkhon Oripova’s greenhouse isn’t just the simple structure it used to be. It’s now alive with digital sensors connected to the internet, through which the 62-year-old farmer can control the temperature, humidity, light and soil moisture. Uzbek farmers also work with drip irrigation.

“In the past,” she said, “a lot of my earnings would disappear into paying for utility bills and buying fertilizers,” says the mother of three, whose farm produces herbs, tomatoes, lemons, corn and clover.

Now, Shaodatkhon can better regulate these inputs through the sensors. If anything needs to be adjusted in the greenhouse, her mobile phone buzzes to alert her.

These sensors were particularly useful over the summer when extreme heat and lack of water impacted production from her greenhouse. While other farmers sustained great losses, she was able to maintain her production at close to last year’s levels.

Shaodatkhon has been used to the hard work and highs and lows of farming. “I was born into a family of farmers, and I have been a farmer my whole life, but it has not been easy,” she said.

It is a different type of farming now. Shaodatkhon describes how every day is a new learning experience with digital technology. She can now free up more time for other things such as marketing her produce, spending time with her family and improving her education and quality of life.

Shaodatkhon is one of the farmers taking part in the Smart Farming for the Future Generations project of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). It is closely aligned with the Digital Villages Initiative, which was introduced in the villages of Novkent and Yuksalish in the Fergana Valley of Uzbekistan in 2023.

The Digital Villages Initiative is a flagship programme of FAO aiming to transform at least 1 000 villages around the world into digital hubs. The initiative seeks to foster rural transformation and empower communities through digitalization and participatory approaches to combat hunger, poverty and inequality. The Digital Village Initiative helps farmers access technology to boost production, access rural services and improve livelihoods.

But it’s not just farmers who are getting involved. FAO is also offering training programmes to local young people. A coding camp helped train youth in replicating smart sensor devices. In the culmination of the training programmes, a Digital Villages Hackathon took place in November 2023 yielding an array of innovative agritech solutions to the challenges faced by rural people in the Fergana Valley.

The continuation of regular collaborative innovation workshops, known as “living labs”, also provides a vital platform for exchange among farmers, experts and innovators. During these sessions, farmers like Shaodatkhon and her family discuss the challenges they face, for example heating the greenhouse against the biting winter cold. Other topics brainstormed with a range of local actors and experts have included water scarcity, a lack of infrastructure and limited access to reliable extension services.

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Who was Daniel Hillel and how has he forever changed water’s relationship to food? He was an American who moved to Palestine in the 1940s. He then pioneered desert agriculture in Israel’s Negev Desert.

Daniel Hillel was born the youngest of five children in Los Angeles, California, at the beginning of the Great Depression. His father died in 1931 when Daniel was one year old, and shortly thereafter his mother moved the family to live with her parents in Palestine, a part of which eventually became the State of Israel in 1948.

At the age of nine, Daniel was sent to live in the countryside on a kibbutz. His experience in this dry, agrarian setting inspired his lifelong appreciation of the land and the need to protect its resources, leading him to pursue an academic and professional career in agriculture.

In 1946, the teenaged Hillel returned to the United States to attend high school in Charleston, South Carolina, the former hometown of his maternal grandparents. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in agronomy from the University of Georgia in 1950, and a Master of Science degree in earth sciences from Rutgers University in 1951.

Hillel’s first posting upon returning to the nascent state of Israel in 1951 was with the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture, where he took part in the first mapping of the country’s soil and irrigation resources.

He soon left the Ministry to join a group of idealistic settlers dedicated to creating a viable agricultural community in the Negev Desert highlands by nurturing the region’s meager but vital resources.

In 1952, he took part in establishing the Negev settlement of Sde Boker. When the country’s first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, toured the area with his wife a year later, he was so impressed by that venture that he resigned from the government and became a member of Sde Boker.

Ben Gurion and Hillel became close friends as they worked together on the kibbutz. Recognizing the young scientist’s exceptional capabilities, Ben Gurion sent him on goodwill missions to promote sustainable agricultural techniques in developing countries. In 1956, Hillel was sent to Burma on his first assignment to help develop the country’s frontier.

Later, in 1957, he earned a Ph.D. in soil physics and ecology at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, then did post-doctoral work at the University of California in soil physics and hydrology from 1959 to 1961.

He pioneered drip irrigation

Throughout his work, Hillel pioneered a new approach to irrigation that led to a dramatic shift away from the prevailing method used in the first half of the 20th century, which applied water in brief periodic episodes of flooding to saturate the soil, followed by longer, drying out periods. The new, innovative method developed and disseminated by Hillel and others in Israel applied water continuously, in small amounts, directly to the plant roots, with dramatic results in plant production and water conservation.

Hillel is featured in the film Symphony of Soil

Hillel’s development and promotion of better land and water management clearly demonstrated that farmers no longer needed to depend on the soil’s ability to store water, as was the case when using the age-old method of high volume, low frequency irrigation.

The technology he advanced, including drip, trickle and continuous-feed irrigation, has improved the quality of life and livelihoods throughout the Middle East and around the world.

Hillel proved that plants grown in continuously moist soil, achieved through micro-irrigation, produce higher yields than plants grown under the old flooding or sprinkler irrigation methods. Using less water in agriculture per unit of land not only conserves a scarce resource in arid and semi-arid regions, but also results in significantly “more crop per drop,” with the successful cultivation of field crops and fruit trees – even in coarse sands and gravel.

By integrating complex scientific principles, designing practical applications, and achieving wide outreach to farmers, communities, researchers, and agricultural policymakers in more than 30 countries, Hillel has impacted the lives of millions.

His water management concepts—promoted by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization as HELPFUL (High-frequency, Efficient, Low-volume, Partial-area, Farm-unit, Low-cost)—have spread from Israel to Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Americas. HELPFUL irrigation technology is now used to produce high-yielding, nutritious food on more than six million hectares worldwide.

Harvesting rainwater

Hillel also helped devise a range of other adaptable, sustainable water management techniques for arid regions, specifically, harvesting rainwater by inducing and collecting runoff from sloping ground, which could allow farmers to grow crops on previously barren lands.

His innovative approaches to enhancing infiltration and reducing evaporation through soil surface treatments have enhanced agricultural productivity. He has defined ways to control the leaching of solutes, the water-logging of root zones, and the erosion of topsoil by precisely determining the supply of water required with only small increments of percolation and drainage needed to prevent salt accumulation.

Hillel participated in many missions around the world, working for and with international agencies and organizations such as the World Bank, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the U.S. Agency for International Development to promote water-use efficiency in dozens of countries in Africa, Asia, and South America. He also worked with the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington D.C. and the International Development Research Center of Canada.

He held positions as a Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Climate Systems Research, part of the Earth Institute of Columbia University, and with NASA/Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

Along with his international field and development work, Hillel embarked on a career in academia as a researcher and professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the University of Massachusetts, Columbia University, and other major research centers worldwide.

He wrote or edited more than 20 books on soil and water science; his seminal textbooks have been translated into 12 languages. He has published more than 300 scientific papers, research reports, and practical manuals, and authored books for the general public on the vital role of soil and water in healthy agro-ecosystems.

Hillel demonstrated the synergistic linkages across food production, water management, and soil science. His achievements have been and will continue to be essential to extending the Green Revolution and confronting the many global challenges in fighting hunger and poverty into the next century.

For his critical work in developing new micro-irrigation systems and disseminating this revolutionary approach to more than 30 countries, he was awarded The World Food Prize in 2012. Significantly, his nomination included letters of support from individuals from three Arab countries.

At the ceremony at which he received The World Food Prize, the Secretary General of the United Nations, H.E. Ban Ki-moon joined in presenting the sculpture to him, and Princess Haya bint Al Hussein and Sheikh Hamad Bin Ali Bin Jassim Al-Thani of Qatar were also in the audience.

“Water has been a very big topic of concern here in the State Department,” said then Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. “We have tried to focus our government’s attention and the world’s attention on the importance of getting ahead of what will be a devastating water crisis if we are not smarter and more purposeful in addressing the problems now. It’s especially fitting that we honor today someone who has made such contributions because he understood the critical role that water plays in agriculture and the importance of getting every last drop used efficiently.”

Hillel said in a statement on winning the award: “My joy and gratitude at being granted the World Food Prize this year is tempered by the realization that the work this award recognizes is far from complete. The task of improving the sustainable management of the Earth’s finite and vulnerable soil, water, and energy resources for the benefit of humanity while sustaining the natural biotic community and its overall environmental integrity is an ongoing and increasingly urgent challenge for our generation and for future generations.

“Meeting this challenge will require enhanced global cooperation and integrated scientific research. It is a task, indeed a collective responsibility, that we cannot shirk and must indeed broaden and intensify.”

Daniel, sadly, passed away in 2021 and was given a tribute by World Scientific Publishing, where he published a number of books. Using less water in agriculture per unit of land not only conserves a scarce resource in arid and semi-arid regions, but also results in significantly “more crop per drop”.

Hillel was also a dedicated teacher who, through his signature textbooks, literally taught thousands of students the fundamentals (or as he would say, “Da Mental Fun”) of soil and water processes.

We wish we could have met this incredible man.

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Israel is rightly and widely perceived as a leader in water resources management and in the design and adoption of “hi tech” irrigation equipment.  Crop yields, the value of production per hectare and productivity per cubic meter of water are all high by international levels, in a context of exceptional water scarcity.

The Israeli experience is often proposed as a model for other countries facing water scarcity.  Most particularly “hi tech” irrigation technology (drip, micro sprinklers, sub-surface drip) is seen as a basis for reducing agricultural water use to sustainable levels.

Volumetrically priced water, which Israel has adopted, is also often recommended to encourage avoidance of waste, reduce demand, and achieve better allocation of water among competing users inside and outside the agricultural sector.

Deriving maximum economic benefit from scarce water resources, and reducing demand to sustainable levels, are explicit policy priorities for many countries, so an understanding Israel’s experience is an important contribution to those objectives.

That said, the institutional and regulatory context, historical pattern of use and hydrogeology within which irrigation has developed in Israel are fundamental considerations for the wider applicability of hi tech irrigation, and also to the relevance of water pricing as a demand management mechanism.

Institutional and Regulatory Context

Irrigated agriculture developed in Israel under the exceptional circumstances of building a State in a hostile environment. The State was powerful, respected and generally inclined towards centralised management. Two key features that emerged from the earliest days were that water resources are owned by the state, can only be used with a licence—with all use metered. Second, all land is owned by the state, and the area permitted to be irrigated and its allocated water supply are authorised by the state.  A farm is thus legally defined in terms of its irrigable area, and its “normal” water allocation.

Water is allocated on the basis of an annually authorised volume per hectare, specified in relation to the “normal” allocation for an average year.  Thus is a dry year, authorised volume may be 80% of the normal allocation, and in a wet year the authorised volume might exceed the normal allocation.  More broadly, allocations are varied to reflect trends in water availability (aquifer and surface storage conditions).

Water tariffs (the price per cubic meter delivered to the farm) are fixed for three “blocks”.  The annually authorised allocation sets the basis for the volume to be supplied in each block: 70% of that volume is available at a relatively low price; the remaining 30% at a premium of 20%. Any additional water that the farmer uses is charged at a high, penalty rate.  The tariffs also vary somewhat depending on water quality, encouraging the use of recycled wastewater. This means that farmers are free to use as much water as they choose (including growing highly water-intensive crops), but face a strong financial incentive to use water wisely.

Water demand is thus influenced (but not limited) by the increasing tariffs applied to higher demands, which in turn are designed to result in a “target” level of demand related to the annually available supply.

Volumetric water pricing certainly has a strong role in this scenario, but is several steps removed from a simple market-clearing price, or an estimated constant price designed to balance supply and demand while allowing farmers to profit from irrigation. Most importantly, the role of pricing depends entirely on the national Water Authority’s power to set annual allocations, fix the price in relation to that target, measure water delivery, and charge in accordance with actual use.  The national Water Authority is, since 2006, an independent agency, minimising political interference that inhibited timely response to crises in the 1970s, 80s and 90s.

Historical pattern of use in Israel

For many years, water allocations to agriculture increased, as infrastructure was developed to serve new areas and exploit the country’s natural runoff and recharge—most importantly through the national water carrier, abstraction from internal rivers, and development of the mountain and coastal aquifers. After about 1968 allocations gradually stabilised, and in the following years, allocations of fresh water to agriculture were reduced—partly due to some severe droughts, and partly reflecting the increased demands for water from other sectors, including the need to reverse the environmental impacts of water resources development.  Despite this, agriculture production continued to grow.

Two separate factors explain this achievement—as reflected in the graph above.  First, the continuous improvement in irrigation technologies and their widespread adoption resulted in an increase in on-farm irrigation “efficiency”—better described as an increase in the proportion of water supplied to the farmer that is converted into productive crop ET.  Well-managed flood irrigation typically has an efficiency of 50-55% (that is, roughly half of the water is converted to crop consumption) while advanced drip and sprinkler technology will easily exceed 80% even allowing for flushing of salts.  Thus, the supply of water for crop consumption was effectively increased by about 50% over the period that technology was transformed from flood to drip and other hi tech approaches.  In fact, freshwater supplies in the last decade or so have actually decreased and have been replaced by treated wastewater, illustrated above in the divergence between total allocations to agriculture and the fresh water (i.e. naturally occurring water from rainfall, percolating to aquifers or running off into streams).

It is a the paradoxical fact, discussed more below, that while freshwater allocations to agriculture declined, crop water consumption in the sector probably increased.

Hydrogeological context

Much of Israel’s irrigated agriculture is in arid areas with no usable aquifers, so that excess irrigation application was lost to evaporation or unretrievable percolation to saline or brackish aquifers.

Towns and cities disposed of their effluent either into rivers that discharged into the sea, or through local treatment plants that released partially treated effluent to the local environment.  More recently, and particularly as non-agricultural water use has become a major component of demand, the potential to treat and recycle urban wastewater has been exploited and has provided a major new “source” of water for agriculture.  The construction of large-scale desalinisation plants in the last ten years has vastly increased the basic availability of water to the country (600MCM in a total demand of 2,000BCM—an increase in the national water supply of almost 50%) allowing release of freshwater to environmental restoration, and increased supply to urban use.  Agriculture in turn has benefited from substantial recycling of the increased supplies to urban areas, which is treated and recycled as wastewater.

What is special about Israel and water use?

Israel’s achievements in the irrigated agricultural sector are remarkable, and appear to have gone through the “usual” cycle of water resources development, expansion of agriculture, over-exploitation of aquifers and rivers (resulting in declining water levels, pollution and environmental degradation) and now emerging into a more unusual scenario where incremental supplies from desalinisation are affordable to augment urban supplies, while  re-use of the consequent wastewater is an affordable source for productive, hi tech irrigation.  This indeed is special.

Several components of this achievement are perhaps unique to Israel, and are preconditions for the model to work:

• control of surface and groundwater resources
• control over the irrigated area
• measured delivery to the farm level
• price incentives (or rationing) at levels sufficient to limit demand

This combination of factors had two separate implications: first, allocations of water have been limited to ensure “sustainability”—long term stability of aquifers and surface storage.  Second, since every farmer is short of water, every farmer is a researcher into water productivity, and in consequence almost all farmers have adopted hi-tech irrigation to maximise the productivity of the scarce water resource.

The conventional wisdom is that Israel lives within its water means because it has adopted hi-tech irrigation.  The truth is the reverse: Israeli farmers have adopted hi-tech irrigation because every one of them is water-short and needs to maximise production per unit of water available to them—so they have adopted hi tech irrigation.

This is not a trivial insight.  Worldwide, hi-tech irrigation is being promoted, subsidised and adopted on the assumption that this will automatically lead to lower demand for water (especially groundwater) despite the absence of controls over access to water.

All the evidence (and indeed hydrological and economic logic) point in the opposite direction: hi-tech irrigation results in a higher proportion of the water delivered to the farm being consumed through ET.  Return flows that recharge aquifers or run off back to streams are reduced, potentially harming other users.  This is the hydrological impact. Furthermore, because water delivered to the farm is more valuable, farmers can afford to pump longer from deeper to acquire more water.  This is the economic impact.

In the absence of the four pre-requisites set out above, promotion of hi-tech irrigation is resulting in the depletion of aquifers across the world, and enhanced competition for surface supplies.  This is a vicious circle, widely observed and largely unaddressed:  the politics of reducing water allocations, monitoring use and either rationing or charging demand-limiting prices for water are contentious. The engineering implications of monitoring water supplies to individual farmers in most systems are extraordinarily challenging (and expensive).

If these challenges are met—water allocations are set, monitored and enforced, supported by simple rationing or demand-limiting price structures—there is a potential virtuous circle, exemplified by Israel’s water history, of environmental stability, farmer-led adoption of innovations that maximise the productivity of water, and a vibrant agricultural sector that can afford to pay for water services from traditional and non-traditional sources.

The alternative scenario of continuous environmental deterioration, a literal race to the bottom of aquifers (often pumping subsidised water to grow low value crops) will eventually be curtailed by nature as the water—for all users, not just profligate irrigators—runs out. (See Morocco aquifers).

It happens, and not just in less developed countries.  While farmers in California are pumping groundwater to grow alfalfa to feed cows in Saudi Arabia, some townships are unable to pump water from the wells that used to supply drinking water.

(An earlier draft of this article benefited from comments from Michael Gilmont)

About the author

Chris Perry is an independent water researcher and economist particularly interested in water accounting, the impact of irrigation technology on the demand for, and consumption of water. He worked for the World Bank for more than 20 years, and was subsequently head of research at the International Water Management Institute. Perry wasthe Deputy Director General of the International Water Management Institute, and after retiring was an Editor in Chief of Agricultural Water Management. 

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Rivulis will showcase how farmers can benefit from using advanced micro irrigation and new climate farming models such as hydroponics, growing food in a water-nutrient medium, to address climate change, water scarcity, biodiversity loss and food security while bolstering sustainable livelihoods for growers.

This initiative introduces farmers on micro irrigation systems – producing more and better-quality crop yields even in harsh climates, while using less water, fertilizer, energy, and labor. Israel’s Netafim started the business of modern drip irrigation back in 1965 in the Negev desert, trying to grow crops in desert soil. Rivulis, was founded around that time too, and was known as Plastro until it was acquired by John Deere.

https://www.greenprophet.com/2023/09/history-promise-challenges-drip-irrigation/

The method is proven and Rivulis, a smart farm builder and consultant, aims to help growers transition to more sustainable farming.

Dana signed an MoU with Masdar City, the zero-waste city of Abu Dhabi, to build its first beta site
there. The beta site tests and showcases leading desert tech solutions for arid environments, water scarcity, greenhouse cooling, soil cultivation and regeneration, carbon sequestration, and resilient seed varieties.

Saudi Arabia-based RedSea farms is doing something similar in the Middle East using brackish water and seawater for growing food.

UAE is hosting the UN’s climate event COP28 this year so the Emirates are eager to show solutions they are implementing to address the threat of climate change to food production – particularly ones cultivated in the Middle East and Africa – and how these solutions can help feed a growing world population, vulnerable to hotter and more arid growing conditions.

While we aren’t a fan of the UAE buying 1/5 of Zimbabwe for carbon credits we are a fan of local initiatives they are taking food production.

Food security is inextricably linked to water security. Globally, agriculture accounts for 70% of the drain on freshwater resources – increasing up to 90% in harsh environments. Dana aims to encourage as many farmers and agricultural corporations as possible to use Rivulis systems as infrastructure for future water solutions. Just this month – we see how a simple addition of water meters can save farms in Morocco.

Nadine Benchaffa from Dana said: “We are proud of our choice to make the UAE a home for our activities in the MENA region. Our anchor in Masdar City will allow us to unlock unprecedented prospects for Agri-Tech innovation within the UAE’s rising and growing ecosystem.”

Richard Klapholz, CEO of Rivulis, said:  “Rivulis, one of the world’s largest irrigation companies and a global irrigation and climate leader, has been spearheading the use of micro-irrigation for over 80 years and the systems that Rivulis has created are crucial for the uninterrupted supply of many of the foods we enjoy today.”

Established in 1966, Rivulis is headquartered in Israel and has 15 manufacturing and distribution facilities, 2,000 employees, 3 R&D Centers (Israel, California, and Greece) and multiple Design Centers around the globe.

::Rivulis

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