African farmers can learn from Israel

Israel is an arid nation faced with land and water constraints. Many farmers in Israel farm under difficult conditions on an average farm size of 2ha, and yet meet 70% of the country's food needs, and produce goods for export worth 2 billion US dollars annually. Can the African governments, agricultural sectors, and smallholder farmers with similar land size holdings, and better climatic conditions learn from Israel's success?

Israel's agriculture is characterised by intensive production supported by a close collaboration and interaction between scientists, extension advisors, farmers and agro-industries. This results in mordern agriculture in a "desert country". Agricultural success in Israel rests in government investment in the sector and a two-way information flow from farmers and researchers.

A lot of Israel's agriculture is based on cooperative societies. Members of a cooperative may produce collectively, or may own individual farms but purchase inputs and market their products collectively.

In Israel, farmers strive to maximise production on a limited space of land. One of such ways is through close-spacing. Yield per hectare can be increased simply by increasing the seed sown by decreasing the space between plants.

In addition farmers focus on growing short-term vegetables which ensure income every three months, rather than planting long-term crops.

Israel is one of the world's most advanced agriculture users with half its arable land under irrigation. Over the past 25 years, agriculture output has increased sevenfold with hardly any increase in water used. This has been attributed to advanced water saving and irrigation technologies, notably the drip system which directs water flow straight to the root zone of the plants.

Africa, which is blessed with good climate and soils is many places should learn fron Israel that is limited by land and water. Africa should learn to maximize her resources sustainably to feed her people and the rest of the world. All it take is committment from the governments, researchers, and farmers. A lot of agricultural research is on going in many Universities and agricultural colleges. The next step is to convert the research output and information into action.