http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3881669,00.html

Having ‘conquered the desert’ at home, Jewish state ready to share technology and skills with African countries struggling to sustain agricultural output due to increasingly unreliable rains

Reuters
Published: 05.04.10, 07:50 / Israel Activism

Having “conquered the desert” at home, Israel is ready to share technology and skills with African countries struggling to sustain agricultural output due to increasingly unreliable rains, an Israeli minister says.

Shalom Simhon, Israel’s minister of agriculture and rural development, said sharing know-how, especially in irrigation and water management, was his focus on a recent tour of Senegal, Ivory Coast and Gabon.

His trip comes as some 10 million people in West and Central Africa face food shortages due to failed rains.

“We are not arriving here in Africa to take resources from the African countries. We are coming here in order to give know-how and abilities to these countries to develop,” Simhon told Reuters in Senegal.

“Israel is the only country in the world that has been able to conquer the desert. More than 50% of our exports are coming from semi-arid areas. This is our strength – this we would like to bring here.”

Simhon said Israel could help Senegal reduce dependence on imports, which currently account for around 80% of food needs. “Senegal’s traditional agriculture is one crop a year. We know how to do three and four crops a year. We can teach that.”

The minister would not give any figures on proposed Israeli aid to African farming or detail the role of Israeli companies in such programs. Already Senegal hosts several Israeli-funded projects looking at using low-pressure drip irrigation to increase productivity.

‘World drying up’

Israeli farmers have been heavily involved in modern developments in irrigation, including drip irrigation systems and water recycling methods.

Some experts believe these techniques could become invaluable in Africa’s arid growing regions, which risk becoming increasingly vulnerable to climate change.

“One of the most important things is the water technology and usage. The world is drying up. There is less water, there is less rain days,” Simhon said.

“In Israel we are using recycled water, desalinated water, rain water, salty water, which almost anywhere in the world we will not have any use for (but) we (use to) make the sweetest tomatoes,” he added.

Simhon said advances in technology had allowed Israeli farmers to use 30% less water while almost doubling output over the last decade, leaving the country with a 150% food surplus.

“We have over-production in Israel. It would have been very easy for us just to load the boat or the airplane … but we think we can do it differently,” he said.

“We are coming with the knowledge, the expertise, with the willingness to share it with other countries,” he added, saying it was up to African nations to establish their priorities and seek assistance that was available.

The United Nations chief of humanitarian operations, John Holmes, is currently in West Africa, seeking to draw attention to the food emergency. The UN called for more efforts to tackle the root causes of the recurring crises.