24 Friday, July 3, 1981
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Hebrew U. Scientists Prepare for Israel's Agricultural Future
JERUSALEM — Profes-
sor Ben Ami Bravdo of the
Hebrew University's Fa-
culty of Agriculture admits
that hunger is virtually un-
known in Israel. But he is
nevertheless frustrated be-
cause "too many people sit
back comfortably," accord-
ing to an article in Israel
Scene Magazine.
"They know that the
green revolution doubled
the yield of many crops —
and then they mistakenly
think that everything has
been accomplished from the
agro-technical point of
view."
In fact, Bravdo by no
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means agrees that agricul-
tural techniques have been
developed to anywhere near
their full potential. Like
other members of the ag-
riculture faculty, Bravdo
believes not only that crops
can be made to drastically
improve their yields, but
that new crops must be
found which will be appro-
priate for different parts of
the world.
As a result of this, sev-
eral projects are now
under way at the univer-
sity which may, in time,
give rise to a new revolu-
tion that will help feed
our increasingly hungry
planet.
One of the most dramatic
advances made by the ag-
riculture faculty has been in
the discovery of the drip ir-
rigation system.
By controlling exactly the
amount of water fed to the
root system of a plant, it is
now possible to increase
plant yields by up to 500 per
cent. And by combining the
new system of irrigation
with a process of continuous
fertilization (fertigation), it
is possible to increase the
crop yield even more, while
simultaneously producing
the highest quality produce.
Part of the "trick" is in
controlling the volume of
the soil which is irrigated,
thus restricting the root
system of the plant to a
specific volume, of soil
rather than letting it run
wild, as naturally occurs.
One of the amazing
spin-offs of this research
has been the discovery of
Professor Bravdo, work-
ing with Dr. Israel Levin,
Dr. Rafael Assaf and Dr.
Yitzhak Klein, of the Vol-
cani Institute, of how to
grow trees in extremely
shallow soils.
In experimental or-
chards, the team has found
that fruit trees can be suc-
cessfully grown in only 20
centimeters (nine inches) of
soil. The trees are con-
tinuously fertilized and
watered according to their
precise needs. And not only
ON THIS MOMENTOUS OCCASION OF HISTAD-
RUT'S 60TH ANNIVERSARY, WE WOULD LIKE TO
EXPRESS OUR SINCERE AND HEARTFELT
GRATITUDE TO ALL OF OUR WORKERS, SOL-
ICITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS FOR THEIR DEDI-
CATED, LOYAL AND CONSISTENT SUPPORT OF
HISTADRUT AND ITS HUMANITARIAN ACHIEVE-
MENTS.
MAY WE ALL MEET THE CHALLENGES OF THE FU-
TURE WITH EVEN GREATER ACCOMPLISHMENTS.
Morris Lieberman,
Campaign Chairman
Isadore Shrodeck,
Executive Vice-Chairman
Abram Medow,
Treasurer
Hyman Upsitz,
Associate Treasurer
Dena Greenberg,
Secretary
VICE-CHAIRPERSONS:
Alex Blumenberg
Norman Cattier
Ben Harold
Morris Lifshay
Adele Mondry
Evelyn Noveck
Irving Pokempner
William Schumer
Paul Sislin
Goldie Eskin,
Executive Regional Director
are the apple, peach, and
plum trees holding up well
in their limited soil, they
are also yielding extraordi-
nary amounts of healthy
fruit. The discovery has now
led Bravdo to advocate the
use of a shallow root system
even where ample deep soil
is available.
From the layman's point
of view, simply seeing fruit
orchards thriving on steep
mountains in 20 centimet-
ers of soil is an amazing
sight. From the point of
view of farmers, it is a revo-
lution of the highest order.
Bravdo's work is not
limited to what goes on out-
doors. "One of the major
concerns in feeding the
world is in gaining a better
understanding of precisely
how plants work, of what
makes them efficient under
different circumstances."
Bravdo and his team
have devised new tech-
niques for studying all of
the processes that occur
during a plant's growth.
Whole plants, single
leaves, individual cells
from those leaves, and
even individual compo-
nents from those cells are
all studied in detail. The
goal, says Bravdo, "is to
construct an idealized
plant; to use each com-
ponent to its optimum
level and, if necessary, to
design completely new
plants."
Dr. Chaim Rabinovich is
also concerned with new
plants and new varieties.
While his efforts may not be
so esoteric, their meaning to
producers, • exporters and
consumers of vegetables are
enormous. Rabinovich is
particularly interested in
tomatoes and onions.
For Israeli farmers, on-
ions are an important cash
crop. They are a relatively
low consumer of water, re-
quire a minimum of field
labor and are easy to har-
vest.
But even lowly onions
have their problems. One of
these is that they store
badly and, because of that,
says Ravinovich, "We har-
vest them when they're not
yet ripe, when the skins are
too fragile. They get half
peeled by the sorting
machines, they sprout and
rot in transit and by the
time they reach the con-
sumer they even smell bad."
And the farmer all too
often suffers a loss from
what might otherwise be
a valuable crop.
Through genetic ex-
perimentation, Rabinovich
has devised an onion that
can now keep on the shelf
for a minimum of nine
months (compared to the
normal two to four weeks).
The new onion has an at-
tractive appearance, a skin
think enough to keep it from
bruising, a mild taste and a
pleasant scent. It even has
the ability to survive ex-
tremely rough transporta-
tion. The first exports of
these onions will be made
from Israel within a year.
In cooperation with Pro-
fessor Nahum Kedar and
Dr. Ehud Kopelovich,
Rabinovich has also been
The drip irrigation system and soil sterilization
through solar heating are two of the projects de-
veloped by professors at the Hebrew University's
School of Agriculture.
working on tomatoes. The
team has come up with what
can only be called a revolu-
tionary tomato — one that
can be kept for well over six
weeks without any deter-
ioration.
Here, too, the ramifica-
tions go far beyond the
kitchen. Because the new
tomatoes must ripen on
the bush and because
they will not begin to rot
even after ripeneing,
farmers no longer have to
harvest their crops every
day. Thus, the farmer is
free to employ more effi-
cient harvesting tech-
niques and can reduce
the usual 20 to 30 percent
loss suffered in harvest-
ing a tomato crop.
Wholesalers and retailers
will not have to "push"
tomato sales, and prices
— which, in the case of
tomatoes, usually fluc-
tuates wildly — will be
stabilized:
Crops from these tomato
plants are now being har-
vested in the Arava — the
southern desert areas of Is-
rael. The semi-
experimental commercial
plots are even producing
different-shaped tomatoes.
Explained Rabinovich:
"The English like their to-
matoes round and about 45
mm. in diameter; the Ger-
mans like their's pink, flat
and meaty; the Swiss like
their's large, red and
round." Even the plant
physiologist must obey
Janis Joplin's now famous
dictum — "different strokes
for different folks."
Unlike most of his col-
leagues, Professor Yakov
Katan is not so much in-
terested in raising crops as
in insuring that they can be
raised.
Says Katan: "One of the
biggest problems is in soil
infestation. There are vir-
uses and fungus growths
that can kill off miles of
crops in a short time."
Because insecticides that
are sometimes used to con-
trol these infestations are
often poisonous and pollute
the air, Katan has been
seeking methods of purify-
ing soil that will not create
negative side-effects.
In one program, he has
discovered a method of
sterilizing soil in open fields
through the use of solar
heating. By using special
plastic coverings, Katan
and his team have dis-
covered methods suitable
for killing viruses and para-
sites .that are simple and
easily taught; safe, because
they utilize no toxic mate-
rials; and relatively cheap.
Thus, in addition to using
the system in advanced ag-
ricultural nations, the
method is also highly
appropriate for developing
nations.
Katan is now doing re-
search to determine the effi-
ciency of using the solar
heating methods with
limited amounts of chemi-
cals in order to find an opti-
mal combination. To date,
the work, carried out in
cooperation with the Uni-
versity of California at
Davis, has proven effective
in cotton fields, on tomatoes
and other vegetables. Posit-
ive results have also come
from preliminary work with
avocado and pistachio trees.
Normalization
Continues
REHOVOT (JNI) — De-
spite rumors of a rift be-
tween Israeli and Egyptian
leaders following Israel's
bombing of. the Iraqi nu-
clear reactor, normalization
appeared to continue for-
ward last week with the
signing of a working
agreement between Egyp-
tian and Rehovot scientists
and the convening of a con-
ference on the history of re-
lations between Egypt and
Israel at Moshav Shoresh.
New Chairman
NEW YORK — Martin P.
Levin, president of the
Times Mirror Co. book
group, has been elected
chairman of the Association
of American Publishers.