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.

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Saudi Arabia until recently was hermetically sealed to the outside world. But times are changing and the Kingdom of Saud which once dwelled in mud palaces are opening up the oil-wealthy kingdom to tourists, archeologists, divers, hydroponics companies, and lately for seeds banks.

The National Center for Vegetation Cover Development and Combating Desertification (NCVC) has launched a project to catalog and analyze wild plants in Saudi Arabia with medicinal, aromatic, toxic, nutritional, and economic properties.

This initiative, in collaboration with the College of Pharmacy at King Saud University, aims to expand scientific knowledge of the Kingdom’s native plant species and provide research-based guides to support sustainable resource use and conservation. Such pharmacological data could lead to new discoveries in medicine.

The project will create detailed guides featuring scientific and geographical insights on wild plants with medicinal, aromatic, toxic, nutritional, and economic value. It will document key findings, map plant locations and characteristics, and benchmark them against the latest regional and global research. Additionally, the initiative includes the development of tailored media content and digital resources to raise awareness among all segments of society about the importance of native plants and their diverse applications.

This effort aligns with the NCVC’s mission and supports the goals of the Saudi Green Initiative and Vision 2030. It strengthens research partnerships among government agencies, academic institutions, and private sector stakeholders, fostering environmental and economic sustainability. By safeguarding the Kingdom’s plant resources, the project further underscores the NCVC’s role as a leading authority on vegetation cover and biodiversity conservation.

The NCVC remains committed to protecting and rehabilitating vegetation sites across Saudi Arabia, combating illegal logging, and managing rangelands, forests, and national parks. These efforts contribute to sustainable development and the preservation of the Kingdom’s natural heritage, in line with the objectives of the Saudi Green Initiative.

Here is a list of 10 unusual medicinal plants found in Saudi Arabia, along with their common names in Arabic and English, and their traditional uses:

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Whenever I read the news about Syria’s refugee and environmental crisis I wonder how Syria’s dictator Bashar Al-Assad’s wife Asma al-Assad, once so vocal about the natural environment (even biking to the West Bank in the past), can let her husband keep this madness up.

A little sanity in the craziness that is and has been Syria:

Precious seeds that had originally been sent by the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) for safeguarding in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in the Arctic Circle were safely delivered to Morocco and Lebanon today.

RELATED: Dressed to Kill Asmad Assad

The seeds originally stored at ICARDA’s genebank in Aleppo, Syria, had become increasingly difficult to access.

 
While the seed cold store is still operational in Syria, the seed retrieval from Svalbard (above) was initiated by ICARDA in partnership with Crop Trust to continue with the service of distributing seeds to users around the world – a vital aspect of ICARDA’s genebank function and role in world food security.

ICARDA routinely distributes around 25,000 samples every year to partners and outside agricultural organizations.

These seeds could hold the key to developing new crop varieties crucial to meeting world food demands with climate change.

RELATED: Syria’s seeds are in Norway

The seeds in ICARDA’s care are a globally important collection with 65 percent as unique landraces and wild relatives of cereals, legumes and forages. These ancient varieties have developed naturally robust genes from thousands of years of survival, adaptation and evolution – a valuable resource for building climate resilience in crops.

The shipment, landing in Rabat and Beirut this week, contained a total of 128 boxes with roughly 38,000 seed samples of forages such as faba beans, lathyrus, wild relatives of cereals and pulses, and cultivated wheat, barley, lentil and chickpea.

With Svalbard mission successfully completed, each sample will be planted and grown at ICARDA’s facilities to multiply seeds and replenish its active seed stock for distribution and also to return a portion back to the Seed Vault for safekeeping.

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Since the Sixties “green revolution,” when Norman Borlaug introduced the concept of cross-breeding and hybridization of plants to boost output, not much has changed, according to Doron Gal, CEO of the Israeli seed technology company Kaiima Agro-Biotech. Kaiima, which means “sustainability” in Hebrew, hopes to be that change.

Gal says that depending on plot, location, crop and season, Kaiima methods have boosted crop yields in ways not seen since the green revolution –– by 10-50 percent.

Kaiima does this by doubling the chromosomes of plants. This is a process that happens naturally. But Kaiima triggers the process so it happens more readily, resulting in more cell activity, more photosynthesis, better plant adaptations to conditions in the field –– and more food on the table.

Other companies have attempted to induce “polyploidy” artificially but in the process damage the plant’s DNA. Kaiima has found a way around this delicate dance. “In agriculture, this is considered a game-changing technology,” Gal tells ISRAEL21c.

Funded by the famous Horizon Ventures

“Kaiima is the first since the green revolution that has an interesting yield-enhancement technology. This is creating a high level of excitement in this industry and dialogue with the biggest players,” says Gal.

The company recently received a nice “yield” of its own with a $65 million investment to continue developing its technology for edible wheat, corn, and rice markets, as well as advances in the biofuel market with its technologies for the castor plant.

Investors include the socially conscious Horizons Ventures, managing the private pay-it-forward investments of Li Ka-shing (Horizon previously invested in Facebook and the Israeli startup Waze); the International Financial Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group; and Infinity Group.

Focused on the three major crops that feed the world, Kaiima has made good progress on each one. “We have demonstrated increases of a few tens of percents,” says Gal.

Kaiima currently has a commercial product available for castor plants.

They are in a semi-commercial stage in wheat and corn. That means seed producers are now testing variants.

Using its seed-breeding technology, based on a series of chemical washes and other proprietary techniques, Kaiima aims to boost crop output of the seeds sent to them.

Gal says: “It is a complex set of protocols. The idea is that genome multiplication happens in plants anyway – it’s the most important mechanization in speciation – and how plants respond to stressful environments. All we have to do is trigger this response within the plant.”

It’s not genetically-modifying organisms

Kaiima says this non-GMO technology is able not only to improve plant productivity but also reduce the amounts of land, water, fertilizer and pesticides needed to grow crops.

The company is still, however, very much focused on research and development, says Gal. Unlike high-tech, agriculture technologies are slow to develop, with a pace much like the pharma industry.

“We try to fit more than one season into a year with various technologies, but still it is a rather short period,” Gal says. “It’s labor intensive.”

In biofuel, which takes up some 20 percent of its business activities, the company is working on business partnerships in Kazakhstan, China, Brazil and Mexico.

Despite the buzz a few years ago, there is less news about biofuels, and this lack of noise isn’t unwarranted, says Gal.

“Biofuels are hard to do. The hardest part is moving from general plants to actual real-world farming, and many in the biofuel arena are not agriculture experts. Biofuel had too much buzz four or five years ago and people expected it to happen tomorrow, but these things take time.”

Meanwhile, food shortages are still the company’s main concern.

“By 2050, farmers will be tasked to produce 70 percent more food than they do today to sustain the growing world population,” says Gal. “This is a daunting challenge that modern agricultural technology must rise up to meet.

The recent investment will go toward improving existing and advancing new technologies. One new idea is perennial wheat that a farmer would not need to plant year after year after year. “It grows back so you won’t have to till,” says Gal.

Kaiima was founded in 2002 by Amit Avidov. It is based in Sharona, Israel, and employs 68 people and 250 farm hands. The other founders are Gal, Alon Lerner, Dror Maayany and Zohar Ben Ner.

This story was first published on ISRAEL21c – www.israel21c.org

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It sounds like something from a book about the perils of the future, a future that is strangely today reality: The seed-engineering company Monsanto genetically engineers seeds to have desirable traits that make them hearty or the plants resistant to the effects of herbicides like Roundup. But when farmers buy and use these seeds they must sign away rights to use the seeds of future generations. After all, Monsanto is investing in the biotechnology (the company reasons) and it needs to ensure future business for its investment.

Holding back the use of one’s self-made seeds sounds almost as bizarre as bottled air in the Lorax, or the bottling of water. But in the case of water, bottled O2 and seeds: these things do happen in our polluted world.

Environmentalists typically are against the practices of Monsanto, claiming that there are certain inalienable rights people and farmers have when they buy seeds. Some farmers in Egypt have resisted Monsanto’s GM maize, while a new company from Israel called Morflora claims to have a new way of washing seeds to avoid Monsanto’s ethical problems altogether. But farmers need to think about their future, and profits. They buy Monsanto seeds because in some markets it is the only way to stay relevant.

So far Monsanto has been a winner in cases against farmers it has taken to court who have gone against the company’s terms, recounts a recent story in the New York Times. Now an American farmer Vernon Hugh Bowman, from Indiana has gone against Monsanto by using soy seeds produced by his crop. The trick: he bought his own seeds back from a grain elevator which sells the seeds for animal food.

According to the Times article: “the 75-year-old farmer from southwestern Indiana will face off Tuesday against the world’s largest seed company, Monsanto, in a Supreme Court case that could have a huge impact on the future of genetically modified crops, and also affect other fields from medical research to software.”

Bowman pleads that he honored Monsanto’s agreement and didn’t use the seeds from his harvest and noted that the contract he signed didn’t make provisions for him buying the same seeds back from another party. He told the NYT that he didn’t want to pay Monsanto huge sums of money for their soy seeds because he planted his crop late in the season, after the wheat harvest, and that it was bound to fail.

He lost to a district court hearing in 2007, and had to pay Monsanto more than $80,000 for infringing on patents owned by the company.

But now Bowman who is planning to fight till the end says, “I was prepared to let them run over me, but I wasn’t getting out of the road.”

Once the beans are sold to the grain elevator, Bowman claims that Monsanto has no more rights to them. And this is what he is bringing with him to court.

He is being helped by lawyers working pro bono.

The question about patenting living organisms has long been considered immoral, but it is the only legal tool in place that can support and grow the biotechnology industry, proponents for the industry argue.

Sources say that any Supreme Court ruling on this new case could have monumental impacts on the biotechnology industry.

I have to note that the seeds in question are ones Monsanto produces to make crops tolerant to Roundup (a Monsanto product ), a strong herbicide that kills weeds but not the crop. Roundup has also been linked to birth defects and God knows what else. Were more farmers to return to permaculture methods of farming, ones that use organic-friendly and natural pesticides, and sometimes heirloom seeds, all this business of Monsanto would be irrelevant.

Yet when I say this people I know who argue for genetic engineering they say GMOs are the only choice for feeding a hungry world. What do you say?

Image of  Vernon Hugh Bowman via the NYT

Update 2013: United States Supreme Court patent decision in which the Court unanimously affirmed the decision of the Federal Circuit that the patent exhaustion doctrine does not permit a farmer to plant and grow saved, patented seeds without the patent owner’s permission. Vernon lost.

The post Small American Farmer Sends Monsanto Seed Patents to Supreme Court appeared first on Green Prophet.

Egypt’s first ever seed bombing event will highlight the importance of preserving Egyptian seeds and promoting local biodiversity

Environmental groups across Egypt have come together to launch a unique event that involves two things you wouldn’t normally put together: seeds and bombing. Campaigners from Nawaya, Nabta, Greenpeace Egypt and 350.org have been busy training activists in the art of seed-bomb production ahead of a guerilla-style gardening event due to take place next Saturday. As well as lots of fun (who doesn’t like moulding shapes with clay!), the event aims to highlight the the importance of local biodiversity and the increased disregard for native Egyptian seeds and crops amongst the agricultural sector. And following the news that Arab Spring countries are at increased of food price hikes in 2013, timing couldn’t be better. 

“The food we grow has become increasingly harmful to our health and our local seeds are slowly disappearing while foreign genetically-modified organisms (GMO’s) owned by corporations are replacing them – a threat to our ability to sustain our local food production,” explains the campaign material for Bozoor Balady (translates as ‘local seeds’). “That is why we need you to join us on October 20 to show how fun and easy it can be to grow food-producing plants in our own streets . . !”

About a fortnight ago, a training and seed-bomb production session was held by the Egyptian campaign and another workshop is planned for this Saturday 13th at various locations – you can sign up here. Campaigners say that want to spread the idea of people growing their own food and also encourage people to reclaim their public spaces using native seeds and plants. You can also learn how to make seed bombs here on Instructables.

Seed bombing is form of green guerilla warfare that has been taking place in the West since the 1970s although it recently gained new popularity within often grey and dreary urban landscapes. The practice consists of using clay, native seeds and compost as well as a little water to mush the ingredients together. These seeds bombs are then dropped onto abandoned wastelands and anywhere plants can grow within cities to add a little colour and life.

A campaign leaflet that will be distributed during the event reveals that 10 corporations control and produce 50% of the world’s seeds. As such, Egyptian farmers have found themselves at the mercy of these agri-business companies who also control processing transportation and sale of their products. Bozoor Balady is therefore campaigning to promote local seed production and a return to sustainable agricultural practices.

The issue of seed patenting, which is also raised by the campaign, makes it illegal for farmers to save and exchange seeds as they are ‘owned’ by certain companies. This is a real threat to farmers’ ability to grow food sustainably and also undermines the natural resilience that comes with having a greater diversity of seeds. As Vandana Shiva, the world renowned campaigner on seed freedom explains:

“The last twenty years have seen a very rapid erosion of seed diversity and seed sovereignty, and the rapid concentration of control over seed by a very small number of giant corporations. Besides displacing and destroying diversity, patented GMO seeds are also undermining seed sovereignty, the rights of farmers to grow their own seeds and to save and exchange seed… Patents on seed are ethically and ecologically unjustified because patents are exclusive rights granted for an invention. Seed is not an invention. Life is not an invention.”

:For more on the campaign see the Bozoor Balady Facebook page.

For more on Egypt and climate change:
Arab Spring Countries Face Increased Risk of Food Price Shocks in 2013
Egypt’s Filthy Canals Are Breeding Disease and Discontent
Egyptian Campaigner: ‘Corruption not Climate Awareness is Holding Us Back’
Egypt Environment Activists Fighting Back Over Sinai Red Sea Bridge

::Thanks to Hoda Baraka from Greepeace for getting in touch about the campaign.

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Israel-based Agro-tech company Rosetta Green has been chosen by international seed manufacturer Bayer CropScience AG for collaboration on a project that will help improve cotton crop for farmers. Rosetta Green, which also manufactures biofuels using  algae, has developed microRNA genes that can replace the need for environmentally harmful pesticides, by making certain crops, like cotton resistant to bugs that would kill them.

Last April, the California Israel Chamber of Commerce selected 10 Israeli clean tech companies to present at the 2011 CICC Cleantech Tour and Showcase, one of which was Rosetta Green.

A subsidiary of Rosetta Genomics (Nasdaq: ROSG), Rosetta Green’s microRNAs work by manipulating the controls of key traits in plants and algae. The company claims that its micro RNA genes that improve the oil content from algae and can make crops more resilient in times of drought.

The company’s technology may have been sparked by the 1990 discovery that microRNA acts as a “master genome regulator” in plants and mammals, as reported at the time by Israel Innovation News. Using that information, Rosetta Green has managed to manipulate the microRNA of cotton, corn, soybeans, and other crops.

“Such developments could significantly increase the areas where crops can be grown and gradually grow more and more crops in arid areas with limited water availability or access to brackish water only,” Rosetta Green’s CEO Amir Avniel said in a statement.

::Rosetta Green

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Opened in 2008, and ranked as the 6th “Time’s Best invention”, the Svalbard vault is the world’s main back up of duplicate seeds collected. More than half a million samples are safely deposited on behalf of 1,750 genebanks from around the world; this “seed deposit service” is provided free of charge thanks to the Norwegian government and the Global Crop Diversity Trust which cover all operational costs. The facility, which cost 9 million USD , has been funded entirely by the Norwegian government and it has a very neat apocalyptic feel to it.

Sunk 125 meters into the Norwegian permafrost, outside the village of Longyearbyen one of the world’s most northerly habitation, the vault is maintained at a constant temperature of -18 degrees Celsius, the concave tunnel head is designed to deflect missile strikes, and the vault has been built deep enough into the mountain to withstand nuclear explosion and rising sea level. Oh, and in case electricity happened to cut off, it would take two centuries for the vault to warm to freezing point. It is not surprising that such precautions have led the Svalbard vault to be nicknamed as the Doomsday Vault, pictured below.

Seed Vault image via Wikipedia

The FAO estimates that 75% of crop biodiversity has been lost since the 1900’s; just over a century ago India had over 100,000 varieties of rice compared to a few 1,000 nowadays. Faced with such worrying figures on biodiversity loss, all in all the Doomsday vault seems like a practical insurance policy to protect global agricultural biodiversity against future blights such as pest, disease, climate change, flooding and droughts.  Furthermore, the terms and conditions seem relatively innocuous:  researchers, plant breeders, companies and scientists do not have direct access to the seeds and instead must request samples from the depositing gene banks from the country of origin.

So far, so good. Yet if we dig a little deeper we discover some additional factors which might make us think twice before rejoicing, writing a victorious article about how the Svalbard vault is saving our biodiversity and hi-fiving our fellow “save the earth buddy”.

The power of holding genetic information:

First, the idea of a global seed bank is important, and we must pursue it as long as it doesn’t discourage individuals, farmers and national-level seed banks to retain and look after their own seeds.

More importantly, although the idea of the Svalbard seed vault was conceived in the 1980’s, fears of biopiracy have hindered its construction. It is only after the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, which entered into force in 2004, that the idea of a global seed vault became legally accepted.  The treaty aims at “establishing a global system to provide farmers, plant breeders and scientists with access to plant genetic materials” and supposedly “ensuring that recipients share benefits they derive from the use of these genetic materials with the countries where they have been originated.”

But please stop for a second and think about this in practical terms. Can and will a farmer, faced with the wonderful jargonated (if this is even a word), convoluted, legal framework of a multilateral agreement REALLY have access to plant genetic materials? Would they even know about the “services” offered by Svalbard? And even if they did, would they necessarily have the financial resources and means to be able to request their own seeds from Svalbard, if they were ever to (God forbid) no longer exist in his own country? Who do you think would have the easiest access to this genetic information: farmers, plant breeders or scientists?

I really believe that this system offers no real “power” for the farmer to decide what, when and how to use any particular seed.  The legal team of the Center for Food Safety has investigated the legal framework behind the deposit agreements at Svalbard. The point was to see if in some way the contract between Svalbard and depositors created an advantage for these corporations in their efforts to control and patent seed genetics. As the legal memorandum revealed that the answer to the question is a big, fat “yes.” The Svalbard agreement does provide corporations seeking to patent plant genetics additional advantages.

The efficacy of seed banks:

Other reasons to be wary of relying solely on Svalbard in particular, or seed banks in general, is that seed banks rarely store plant varieties that do not produce seeds such as berries, nuts and tubers which are integral in a human diet. Also, will the frozen or stored seeds be able to grow in a climate and soil which are likely to change in the future? As we know nature is constantly evolving to adapt, perceiving the seed as a potential life that can stand the test of time is perhaps wrong, especially in the face of rapid climate change.

So the real question is how can farmers guarantee a constant supply of their own seed varieties that adapt to localized evolving conditions?

The answer is quite simple, by ensuring that traditional varieties are being harvested.

Biodiversity is a public good,many may not realize its importance until it is too late so governments,individuals, and communities also have a role to incentivize the preservation of indigenous biodiversity. An example of this is the community led mobile biodiversity festival in India.

Seedy business?

The GMO industry is buttressed by monsters, not giants, such as the famous Monsanto, Syngenta, DuPont and Dow Chemical. These are happily funded by the USAID, and other philanthropic groups such as the Rockefeller foundation and Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. They have been marketing the use of GMO s and have been cajoling farmers to abandon old seeds varieties, for new hybrids, which (falsely) promise yield increases of 21-43%. The fierce marketing strategies, have led to an inevitable rush for hybrids while trampling over precious indigenous genetic resources. The consequences are disastrous: Monocropping has eliminated variety while contamination of non-GMOs crops is threatening the organic business. Terminator seeds have been developed to create dependence on unaffordable GMO seeds, which have indebted many farmers and we know the rest of the story (if you don’t please watch Life Running out of Control )

Yet how is it that the same organizations (and philanthropists) that have promoted GMOs are also financing the Global Doomsday seed vault? This is a huge contradiction. Why would you promote mono-cropping and biodiversity preservation at the same time?

As F. William Engdahl, author of Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation, points out:

“What leads the Gates and Rockefeller foundations to at one and the same time back proliferation of patented and soon-to-be Terminator patented seeds across Africa, a process which, as it has in every other place on earth, destroyed the plant seed varieties as monoculture industrialized agribusiness is introduced; and at the same time invest tens of millions of dollars to preserve every seed variety known in a bomb-proof doomsday vault near the remote Arctic Circle ‘so that crop diversity can be conserved for the future’ to restate their official release?”

Let’s not forget Henry Kissinger’s quote:

“If you control the oil you control the country; if you control food, you control the population.”

Monsanto’s recent purchase of Seminis and De Ruiter Seeds, makes them the largest GMO seed company on earth, controlling approximately 85% of the market. I am not so convinced about what is going on here, in fact I am worried.

I do not know how much control Monsanto and other GMO companies will have on the genetic information held at the Svalbard Global seed Vault, laws are easy to bend and twist- especially if you are powerful.

Amidst the crude civil war currently going on in Syria, the service provided by the Svalbard Global seed Vault to Syria is welcomed, as long as it doesn’t become a way to control the destiny of Syria’s (and indeed global) food supplies.

For more information please read :Seed Saving and Seed Banks.

Top image of keyhole and green from Shutterstock

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