agriculture

N-Drip's drip irrgation system in the US. (Martin Hobelman/N-Drip)

June 21, 2023, 9:10 pm

Agritech firm N-Drip raises $44 million in Liechtenstein-led funding round

Drip irrigation tech developer inks cooperation agreement for the marketing of its systems in rice fields in the US, India and other countries

By Sharon Wrobel

A rendering of what archaeologists believe the sand farm looked like during production some 1,000 years ago. (courtesy Yaakov Shmidov/Israel Antiquities Authority)

April 10, 2023, 3:01 am

Over 1,000 years ago, Caesarea’s coast was likely the birthplace of sand farming

Around 900 CE, a complicated plot-and-berm system used industrial waste to build agricultural fields on sand – launching a completely novel way of raising vegetables

By Melanie Lidman

Dr. Yael Abadi-Reiss, an archaeologist with the IAA, shows the copper fishhook in this photo from March 29, 2023. (courtesy Emil Aladjem/IAA)

March 29, 2023, 2:38 pm

Ancient jaws: 6,000-year-old copper fishhook, oldest in region, was likely for sharks

Artifact discovered near today’s Ashkelon demonstrates mastery of copper technology, say archaeologists

By Melanie Lidman

Geraniums growing in Bioplasmar's biodegradable pots. (Zamir Eldar, Paris, February 5, 2017)

March 7, 2023, 2:34 pm

In breakthrough, Israeli firm learns how to control breakdown speed of compost items

Bioplasmar says it can determine how long its biodegradable plant pots will stay firm on the shelves, before disintegrating when planted into the soil, paving way for other uses

By Sue Surkes

Israeli startup MetoMotion's greenhouse robotic worker picks and packs tomatoes. (Courtesy)

February 2, 2023, 6:15 pm

Israeli startup develops first AI robot for picking tomatoes

MetoMotion says driverless machine slashes harvesting costs by 50%; startup seeks to raise $8 million to scale up production

By Sharon Wrobel

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Supermarkets. Photo courtesy of astrakanimages.

December 14, 2022, 9:05 pm

Solving the world’s food shortage

How one Israeli startup’s revolutionary agri-tech innovation is extending the life of fresh produce throughout the supply chain

By Donny Fuchs

Farmers block the Bilu Junction as part of protests around the country against the finance and agriculture ministries plan to open up the fruit and vegetable market for import, on July 29, 2021. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)

November 29, 2022, 2:52 pm

Allowing imports of fruit and vegetables likely to endanger food security – report

Likely suppliers Turkey, Egypt, Jordan less prepared for climate change, and potentially unstable and unreliable, says Shoresh Institution for Socioeconomic Research

By Sue Surkes

Fishermen sail in a boat in the Shatt al-Arab waterway, formed at the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, as the sun sets over Iraq's southern city of Basra on October 30, 2022. (Hussein FALEH / AFP)

November 7, 2022, 6:33 am

Twilight of the Tigris: Iraq’s mighty river is drying up

Drought has shrunken the watercourse that is crucial to the region’s agriculture; ecological awareness remains low among Iraq’s general public

By Aymen HENNA

An artist's rendering of how plants may look growing in space. (NiseriN via iStock by Getty Images)

October 20, 2022, 4:03 pm

Israel, nation that made desert bloom, now aims to grow plants on the moon

Hoping to pave way for self-sustaining lunar bases, institute that helps turn Negev and other arid areas fertile preparing to blast mini-greenhouse of seeds and plants into space

By Nathan Jeffay

A variety of 'watermelon plum,' one of the creations of hybrid fruits by a hybrid fruit grower in the moshav of Yesod HaMa'Ala in northern Israel, July 21, 2022. (JACK GUEZ / AFP)

September 21, 2022, 9:43 am

Black apricots and ‘watermelon plums’: Farm grows unique fruits

Located in fertile Hula Valley, farming family utilizes traditional cross-breeding techniques to produce distinctive climate-friendly crops

By AFP

A Tunisian student participates in fig picking in the Tunisian town of Djebba, southwest of the capital Tunis, on August 19, 2022. (FETHI BELAID / AFP)

September 18, 2022, 10:27 am

Tunisia’s ancient hanging gardens face challenges of climate change

Local farmers, after suffering through hottest summer since 1950s, use agricultural techniques passed through generations to fight against rapidly dwindling water supplies

By Habib Haj Salem

A chameleon on an avocado tree. (Courtesy, Milopri farmers)

September 13, 2022, 8:12 am

1st-of-its-kind rewilding project links disused farmlands in eco-corridor

Ability of insects, small animals, plant species to migrate safely between areas is expected to boost biodiversity, benefit avocado orchards, meet EU eco-agriculture standards

By Sue Surkes

A construction site for new housing in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba on July 28, 2022. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

August 15, 2022, 11:58 pm

Inflation and housing prices continue to climb, breaking new records

July increase in consumer price index brings Israel’s yearly inflation rate to 5.2%; housing prices jump by 17.8%, the highest in over a decade

By Danielle Nagler

Opposition head Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. (Menahem Kahana/AFP; Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)

May 16, 2022, 11:12 pm

Netanyahu accuses Bennett of ‘gambling with lives’ as PM defends Ra’am partnership

‘His vision was, how can we – Israeli citizens – get along,’ premier says of Mansour Abbas, accusing Likud chair of treating Islamist party leader like a ‘mistress’ when he was PM

By Tobias Siegal

Ilana Toweg, right, and her husband Doron field countless prayer requests because of their prominence as Israel farmers strictly observing shmita, Jewish laws about letting farmland lie fallow every seven years. (Deborah Danan/JTA)

April 23, 2022, 8:38 am

Why an Israeli farmer is celebrated for killing his crops (Hint: It’s in the Bible)

At the urging of his wife Ilana, Doron Toweg let their eggplants die, costing them massive contracts, as they joined a growing movement to observe the biblical precept of shmita

By Deborah Danan