Agriculture in the Negev - Today's Desert Pioneers

[Music] Israel's Negev desert a land of searing heat dry barren and yet ruggedly beautiful a place where Abraham Isaac and Jacob walked where Moses and the children of Israel wandered and allotted to the tribes of Judah and Shimer today it makes up 60% of the modern State of Israel and it is still a land of wonders [Music] [Applause] my name is Professor Simon Barak from ben-gurion University and I'm standing here in Madrid ben-gurion overlooking a spectacular wilderness of zin and I'm standing right by the graves of Israel's first Prime Minister David ben-gurion and his wife Paula and this is really fitting because it was vainglory ins vision to settle and develop the Negev and make the Desert Bloom and been going is often quoted as saying that it is in the Negev that the creativity and pioneering spirit of Israel will be tested I grew up on the stories of the early Zionists pioneers who came to the Land of Israel to set up a Jewish homeland establish the kibbutz him and the mush of him and set out to cultivate the desolate land and grow crops in places such as the Negev where nobody thought they could be grown nowadays we hear a lot about Israel's new pioneers in high-tech in cybersecurity in computer software but what about agriculture and what about agriculture in the Negev can we find that spirit of innovation that David ben-gurion envisioned and what about the stories behind today's desert pioneers [Music] one of bank or Ian's dreams was to set up an Oxford University of the Negev which would attract Israeli scientists to carry out the research to promote sustainable development of the Negev and dry lands all over the world so what better place to begin our journey than ben-gurion University's jacob lowenstein institutes for desert research on the stable care campus we're going to meet later on some of the amazing scientists who are pushing forward the frontiers of desert agriculture but right now let's go and meet our first desert farmer [Music] [Music] hey hey [Music] it's friends [Music] ceramic you've been a copper farmer for many years what actually is this jojoba plant we can say well it it's a plant that came from the United States a sudden the United States Mexico and was cultivated in Israel about 30 years ago the Doudna ms1000 dunams it's approximately 100 acres is a large field yes yes it's a medium-sized in Israel scale it's a medium medium size yes and what is the whole plant produce the plant produce seeds in form this those seeds we produce oil and what direction is the oil used for what is the main market mostly for the cosmetics so it's mostly for the cosmetics market that's right why is it so good for cosmetics it's so places whale oil well that's a good reason yes it's kind of a green oil and it's the closest oil to our nature body oil so this is the advantage of this oil I understand from what you've told me in the past that Israel is a real major player in this market what is the size or what is Israel's proportion of the market in the two years from now when the plantation like that will produce our seeds we're going to be approximately 50% of the market worldwide world wow that's huge yes it is so I still trying to understand why Israel has captured so much of the market is it just that other places are not growing it they don't know how to grow it they're not growing it as well well the reason is that we change the technique of buying the jojoba and this research of course everything is combined with the farmers so this is the reason that we got so so good yes well whoever becomes very popular crop in Israel recently and very popular in the desert areas we're lucky enough we have a certain water as brackish water in the ground water that we can pump and use for irrigation who have a plant of very tolerant of salinity and we trying to check different levels of salinity in how to affect the growth of the plant and different parameters like photosynthesis food development should development and at the end the yield of the planet so far we didn't find any significant effect between the different salinity level which is good for farmers because then we can irrigate the plant with less expensive water high salinity and we hope to get the same yield as with those ability this is a very large initiative that involved many Institute's around Israel we have the bengal university R&D research and development facility in Ramat Negev which hosts this experiment and with by using the 7 water that available here in the desert areas we can grow this plant and encourage farmers to grow this plant and make money out of the oil that they produce from this crop surround me I see that the plants here are quite small how old the plants here the plants here about 990 a month old and they're gonna be as high as 3 meters Wow yes you want to say yeah yeah I'd love to say so come on [Music] so Simon you as you can see over there there's a plantation that's about two and a half years old and where we're standing now is a 30 almost 30 years old plantation the height huge ceremi from our past conversations I know that you were actually born a city boy so yes I was born in there I'm Afghan or a real city boy yes and my family I haven't actually has had a family because everybody a were killed in the Holocaust so there's a family in moshav that actually almost adopt me and this is was my first introduction to agriculture and from then I wanted to study agriculture so I went to high school in Paris Rana the agriculture school and from then to the army I was a paratrooper and came to this debacle and started and you what what is it you love about agriculture well it's the most exciting occupation I think there is it's not actually an occupation it's a way of living and here in the desert specially in the desert to make the Desert Bloom this is how you do it our next stop is amor chef just a few metres from the Egyptian border that is named after a site or sites in southern Canaan and the kingdom of Judah and Moses sent messages from Kadesh unto the king of Edom thus saith thy brother Israel thou knowest all the hardships that have befallen us how the Egyptians oppressed us and when we cried unto the Lord he heard our voice and brought us out of Egypt and behold we are in Kadesh a city in the uttermost of thy border the modern Kadesh Barnea is home to over 40 families and we are going to meet a special young family who has decided to settle here and grow exotic mushrooms I grew up in chaotic one which is near and Hobbit in the center of Israel and the adult abuse of all edit helices furniture on it so what actually inspired you to become a farmer and to become a farmer in the Negev had a volume issue la of - a suburbs after silly minutes the dim Gamma Phi Gamma a maluma Cantina our limited vision shall solve it the Hyman him Valentina filipova Alex in bowel habits the Morales clothes and beloved whatever a leadership some of the softest in a little bit not some sheemish Time Lords table at himesh law reporter me die the cloud chamber to Leila such point for human livers valentina become unit note nor seen him do to me dah-dah-dah-dah MA Valentina confession most embarrassing problem LaHood lolly best best man the solution II cannot remember a youtuber wash the color crema which are thought he shall come a meet in a super become CEO of my Amish Baja come on and off the time endeavors they come collect met volume she save it on Aleppo color same Chile an adult eBay Shop see to free subject to feel like mochi would call a shame of our clothes Kalahari meditation you every day master Villa teleports in the Negev leo table Sigma Shelly a master version you say oh that's me but no buts it's not Sahil bah keyboards Leticia LASIK machine leash and if a little of at machining and hotel are thought to beta me they had add volumes ability so Gila how did you get this idea of growing exotic mushrooms we met this guy that told us about the exotic mushrooms and he told us that there isn't any exotic mushrooms that are not being imported from Europe or from the east and we thought that it can be a new way agriculture to do in this area in addition to that with to the Netherlands in order to see a little bit about the field and to learn more about it and we met a guy in the Netherlands after we met him we understood that he is one of the leading people in Europe in the exotic mushroom field and he told us everything about it and we were very excited to hear about it and we said ok so we're going back to Israel and we're going to build our farm and grow exotic mushrooms and we're gonna be the first one to grow mushrooms in the Negev ever kind of pioneers so we decided that this one we wanted to do and we came back to Israel and to pause build everything by himself we are marketing our mushrooms we have a couple of days that we are driving through the center in order to sell our mushrooms but we are in contact with some of the big supermarkets in Israel the ones that are more organic or more a healthy supermarkets that buy from us so these are organic mushrooms yeah yeah in the nature I think this is the main purpose why we came here beside the fact that we want to be farmers we have decided to build their house in the desert here in Kadesh Barnea so in a couple of months we're supposed to move in and this these are our roots in the desert I think additionally I know Matt's a Negev and we feel connected to this to this place [Music] so we're now deep in the southern Negev region and we are on our way towards Mitzpe Ramon and we're going to visit an agricultural industry which has really flourished in recent years all over this part of the Negev and it's where ben-gurion University researchers have had a real impact and I have to say I'm really looking forward to this one and you'll see why later so here I am in the absolute middle of nowhere and what can we find here vineyards in the desert [Music] so we're about to meet my close friend and colleague professor Aaron fight from the Jacob Lowenstein Institute's for desert research Aaron made earlier in 1992 from Italy and his applauded by a chemist and the leading scientist in the Agra technology and biotechnology of desert viticulture so viticulture is the production of wine grapes so let's go ahead and meet him so it's amazing to be in a vineyard in the middle of the desert Aaron why grow grapes in the desert well the desert has been used for wine production thousands of years and here the good things about desert viticulture are the fact that we have nice solar radiations moreover we don't have a large amount of humidity which helps plants not being attacked by pathogens like fungi and you can control very precisely the amount of irrigation each plant or each cultivar gets including also the amount of fertilizers the plant gets so this is drip irrigation drip irrigation which is an Israeli technology which Netafim eyes distributing throughout the world to most of the farmers here grow grapes for the major wineries in the central north of the countries or do they actually have their own wineries yeah I would say it's both you have both small wineries and farmers that try to make a living out of ecotourism with a small production like 2,000 bottles a year and you have then the big wineries from the center and the north that are actually growing their grapes here because they want the characteristics characteristic aroma and fragrance of the desert other any Israeli varieties by Israeli native varieties that are grown in Israel for wine so viticulture in the past stopped when the Ottoman Empire arrived to the region so it was quite a long time ago and since then there was no real wine production in Israel until modern times so there are Israeli vines found in the wild and now they were collected by dr. Lu shivved Rory from a real University in a nice collection mainly for breeding purpose so Erin we're gonna be seeing you later so for now we're going to say bye and we have with us one of your students normally chef who's just at the end of his PhD and we're going to talk to him now about some of his work that he's doing in this actual vineyard how did you get interested in winemaking well I went to New Zealand after my army service for my big trip and I was a hitchhiking in the middle of nowhere when a vineyard owner picked me up after a long ride together he offered me to stay with him and help him out in the field and I did it was short but it inspired me for the future so you're saying just by chance you're in the middle of New Zealand definite and just happens that a vineyard owner comes to pick you up and that is what inspired you yeah to go into winemaking dori amazing so you came back to Israel and you did your first Israel I did my bachelor's in their biochemistry and food science went to work in a winery in the Golan Wow and then I straight headed to France to do my masters in viticulture and enology and then you came back to Israel to do your PhD yes this was the plan to learn my knowledge there and implement it here in Israel so now I know that you've been doing a lot of research in your PhD can you tell us a little bit about what you've been doing yeah well it's not a secret that warm climate viticulture is associated with the inferior wines but we can't change the climate so what we what we can change is maybe the fruit microclimate and this we can do by mainly regulating the amount of sunlight penetrating the fruit so what you're talking about is the actual climate around each individual berry yeah exactly microclimate the conditions that are sensed by each berry most of most of what we did is apply shading nets and see how it affects the the great composition and we have state-of-the-art metabolic profiling techniques to really see all the compounds that are in the grape that are involved in the quality of the world and now we are also collaborating with the local winery they're working on a new trellis that will create this partial shading by the leaves and not by changing so you're actually gonna cause the plants to grow to shade their own berries exactly well that's amazing I believe that Israel can become a leader in the adaptation of viticulture to climate change known thank you so much for coming to speak to us it's been amazing to hear what you're doing and I believe that you and Erin are going to take a snail to what I think is going to be one of my favorite parts of the day so why don't you lead on okay let's go oh wow Aaron this is absolutely amazing what a surprise absolutely amazing so what are we drinking well it is a merlot from a little aged from 2012 from coming of that a local winery excellent excellent parent what can be better than sitting in the middle of the Negev desert drinking wine from the Negev [Music] the central air of our region where we are headed comprises 6% of Israel's land it contains only about 0.04 percent of Israel's population three and a half thousand people who has spread out among five much of him and to community settlements that were founded from the 1960s onwards most of the residents make their living from agriculture and thanks to their creativity and daring combined with scientific research the farmers of the are OVA have succeeded under conditions the may have deterred many others we're just about to go and meet my own and Arielle ketone who found right here in Moshe have it done but where is here exactly well I'm standing right next to the Jordanian border if you look behind me we can see no-man's land and if I just walk a few more meters I can walk right into Jordan there's no border fence here no border markings and I'm under the watchful eye of a Jordanian border post and it really makes me think of the original pioneers who set up these communities right by what was then an enemy border [Music] some my own Inari yell tell me how this all started how did you come to be in the lava and growing peppers 18 years ago the LA and I were already married and he told me that he wants to be a farmer yeah we both come from kibbutz in in the northern part of Israel and the place that we could start our own farm was here in the Arve it was still there supported by the government and this is why we ended up here in the Alpha what does it drew you to the Arab up we're looking to do sit yeah yeah we can grow summer crops during the winter time with low energy demand this is the advantage that we have here and what is it you love about doing agriculture no I I feel the the land I feel the the crops it's a I like to to see it coming up and everything is successful and I hate to pick actually so what mark are you growing the peppers for we're exporting mainly to Europe England and Russia these are our markets overseas and the local market here in Israel I would like you to try one of our peppers oh I would very much like to do that yes Wow look at that pepper that's a beautiful pepper just delicious so should we go and see the tomatoes let's go in the Negev desert we have several a biotic stresses such as high temperature in the summer low temperature in the in the winter and also the irrigation water that we have here is mostly selling water so since we are in a research and development center and we are working together with the farmers we can produce even more yield than other places with drip irrigation with the net house with the trellising system and with other technologies that altogether when you put them all together you produce the best yield the best quality and the best taste ok Simon so we brought you here to see something very little and very special ok this is the Tom berry tomato which is like finest tomato wow that's really small look at that Wow really really is small isn't it so what would you use this for you just put it in the salad you no need to cut it's very easy very fresh Wow so this is going to go like two chefs and as well in restaurants and customers huh and is anybody else growing this no we are we have the exclusive rights right Israel in Israel and are there any one type of variety or do you have there's the red one and there's also the yellow one by the way the other one is tastier really yeah so I'm going to try the red one and then try a yellow one I'm gonna what I'm gonna try this now hmmm we're really sweet they're really good I recommend to try the yellow the other ones no better okay I think oh we have some yellow ones here well there you go so I'm gonna taste this one no that is good that is really good so when did you what gave you the idea of bringing these two to Israel I travel in a few places in the world to look for something else to grow in there for the Israeli market and one day I was in Venezuela I met those guys that he go he developed the tombery so let's go to tombery yeah okay that's a cute name yeah so this is just one of your tomato crops right because I see around but there's quite a lot of other Tomatoes as well so this is that this is just something that's beginning yeah it's the first year it's only on a small scale to check the market to fill the market and in this greenhouse we have unique and different types of tomatoes that we can check the reaction in the local market for them so iron um I am what is it about life in the era that you love so much do you have a family that you've raised here yeah we do have we have three kids and the life here is very simple they they don't have a lot of places to go hang around with a kids with the friends it's more of going out to the desert and enjoy and enjoying themselves yeah what type of person do you think is really attracted to here is it somebody who's looking for quality of life is it Zionism is it settling the Negev it's basically a combination of all what you mentioned and they're unique people come here to live in the other but I have to say that many of the kids that grew here in the Alva are coming back and building their arielle and my own thank you so much for taking the time I know you have a very busy day and thank you so much for showing us around the farm [Music] hey yourself how you doing I'm great thank you for coming thank you so much for having us here and I can't wait to see what you've got to show us let's go Wow a surface is astonishing you're growing corals in the middle of the desert farming calls cuz I mean a farm region agriculture region and cause as you know a symbiotic with algae that does photosynthesis and this is what I usually have during the year is a sunlight and that's why I try to grow cause how many types of corals do you grow imagine around 50 different species and I are they from all over the world they come from the Far East most of them something Kenya or something is truly open so I have to ask you the million-dollar question what are you growing the corals for mainly the market my market is that the biomedical companies bone grafting there's a skeleton skulls very similar to our skeleton how does actually work they use their coal as a glue or scaffold meaning that the body can actually sees it as its own and will replace it so this is one of the products that are coming from the cause this product here is a four we doing bone grafting after toothless pulled out first dental market what are the fish for their part of the holistic size of the system they add nutrients a little bit they take some of the allergies out they move the different directions or stuff I can see there's some special type of lighting here what is that lighting well that lining is sunlight that this is what we have here in the desert mostly and that the cause are obviously photosynthetic most of the energy that they need comes from the Sun and that tubes will reflect the sunlight from outside and and mind jørgen that the the lining regime that I need is a 12 hours daylight and 12 hours of night and so just to pay electricity or no electricity of those Silla tubes I understand you've also got some solar power as well which you use yes I have some solar panels a lot of them so during the day a lot of the energy that I use here actually comes from energy Gaia produce so we can actually say that I can think of there's three ways in fact you're very environmentally friendly one you're using the solar tubes two you're using solar power and three you're not going into the ocean and cutting away and destroying all the corals they're actually growing them here so it's tough how did you think about this absolutely crazy idea of growing corals in the middle of the desert I've been doing it for 10 years I still think it's crazy idea this is where I was born in raised I've been a way for sometimes came back as a lighting designer and I thought of how to take what I know into the vision that which is all farming agriculture so starting looking into different things of implementing LEDs into the forming this and this and that made me think of this idea I thought if I can grow it I'll be the only one lucky me and that's forming with the potential I know you the only one who does this to my knowledge the way I do it yes well that was unbelievable corals in the desert who knew we're heading to our final stop now on moshav cut server and we're going to meet run Epstein who owns one of the most successful ornamental fish farms in Israel [Music] so fish in the deserts run what's that all about it's swimming upstream but there is only one advantage we are far away from any natural habitat like river lake or sea and the isolation for Maine native or natural a pathogen is a very big advantage right so actually we are very famous for our disease-free and for our biosecurity unlike pause the clothes to make sure a fish habitat right how did this all start you said to me you're from Tel Aviv I'm from Ramat Gan and this is my hobby since I was a child I came down to the river because that time there was a huge support in the hub and that's how I built amazing farm one of the most successful pom world when I would run this is an absolutely incredible operation you've got here so what type of fish are you growing gee we grow away ornamental fish and we grow where freshwater prawns Malaysian Pro the pros we export to Far East China Vietnam Malaysia the ornamental we produce mainly for the Western countries like West Europe North America South Africa but we sell all over the world how much fish are you producing a year I mean you use a huge place this we produce millions of fish per month we are one of the biggest farms in the world for an omental is much of the technology here a technology that you've developed yourself and what was that that we saw coming across so we use the feeders robot feeders that we develop our surf which boots a mouth that feeds our bring out constantly during the days about 20 times per day automatically it's helped us to feed very low cost as far as water is concerned you know when somebody thinks about doing things in the desert they're not necessarily going to think of growing fish which is using water so your water use is compared to others what it what is that like we cycled one percent of the water first of all the all our fish tom is by a secure system that consumed only five to ten percent water change per day and they route the water that go out from our systems we irrigate all year around the water through a bait we have very good relation with all the University in Israel especially with the penguin University we have a very interesting collaboration with the professor Deena silver and also we have an amazing project collaboration with the Kissimmee segi in this lab we focus on research related to fish health we carry out research on various disease-causing agents parasites bacteria we are also looking at fish immunology studying the fish immune system we provide diagnostic services to aquaculture farms around the country and one of our main themes is looking for natural alternatives for chemicals and antibiotics that are used in aquaculture we're looking for various plants and extracts of plants that can replace those chemicals we are also looking for natural treatments that can immuno stimulate the fish boost their immune system we are using a lot of algae in the food for that that's one of the main ways by which we stimulate the fish looking for unique microalgae that can be added to the food and make the fish stronger I was fascinated to see that run is also growing millions of male prawns now is even more intrigued to see his workers injecting tiny prawn fry and to learn that they were injecting them with an agent to silence a gene producing a hormone for male organs therefore the injected male prawns developed female reproductive organs and can mate with regular male clones to produce an all-male population which are much larger than the females so we went to see the ben-gurion University scientists who invented this technology to find out more about it we discovered a insulin-like hormone that is responsible for males we understood that if we silence the gene that is encoding this hormone and this is exactly what we do and now Ron is doing it in order to produce the broodstock that at the end is producing only males and then you increase the yield when we realized that could be a game changer in the industry because we are talking about a huge market of in this specific prawn about 400,000 tons and mostly in China and Vietnam the Chinese market is the largest in the world and we are talking here about traditional food it's not an item that you eat in the restaurant once a year it there this is their natural food so it is a very significant part of their diet since the animals are all male and non-breeding we could use them for bio control tasks and mostly in Africa and this is a very large project that we are running we are also working on a project together of sending those all male prawns to Senegal in West Africa in order to fry to devastating disease the disease is called bilharzia schistosomiasis this disease is transmitted by freshwater snails about 200,000 people die annually from the disease and more than 200 million people are infected mostly in Africa and our prawns were found to be voracious predators of those freshwater snails so we are we want to use those prawns as biocontrol agents to eliminate the disease it's a really big project financed by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and of course we are working with a local NGO in Senegal and the Senegalese Health Ministry and the few other universities from around the world and hopefully we'll have very good results soon enough we've come to the end of our journey we've seen Cahawba plantations exotic mushrooms on the Egyptian border we've been to vineyards and drunk negative wine in the middle of the desert we've seen the smallest Tom berry tomato being grown by the Jordanian border and we've seen corals being grown for medicine ornamental fish and we've seen biotech prawns when I think about it to be a great farmer you have to be so many things you have to be a grower of course but you also have to be a scientist an engineer a businessperson an economist and above all you have to be willing to take risks we've also seen how interwoven the Negev farmers are with agricultural research and we've met some of the brilliant scientists at ben-gurion University who are pushing forward the boundaries of the possible to support agriculture in the Negev at the beginning of this movie I asked the question whether we can still find that spirit of innovation that David ben-gurion envisioned in the Negev I think david ben gurion would have been really proud to see these amazing people farming the Negev building Israel and I think he would have been so gratified that ben-gurion University is at the forefront fulfilling his dream and working hand in hand with these desert pioneers [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Ben-Gurion University | אוניברסיטת בן-גוריון בנגב

Views: 55,848

Keywords: Desert, Negev, Ben-Gurion, Ben-Gurion University, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Simon Barak

Id: TAeQX5goPA4

Length: 40min 39sec (2439 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 07 2018