7
54
Friday, May 25, 1984
THE' DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
NEWS
•
Israeli agronomist's goal is to make the Negev bloom
BY YEHONATHAN TOMMER
Beersheba — Like Is-
rael's first Prime Minister,
David Ben-Gurion, Israeli
agronomist Yoel DeMalach
is convinced that Israel's
farming future is in the
Negev. He has solid grounds
for this .belief: 40 years of
pioneering at Kibbutz Re-
vivim, which he helped to
establish in 1943 with 30
friends from his native
Florence, Italy. A dusty
outpost south of Beersheba
at the time, the fact that
Revivim is today a leading
agricultural cooperative in
the desolate Negev region is
dramatic tribute to the
community's farming in-
genuity.
At Ramat Hanegev, a
Jewish National Fund-
supported agricultural sta-
tion near Revlirim, the
silver-haired DeMalach and
a team of researchers have
developed food crops irri-
gated by saline water and
treated sewage. The Jewish
National Fund reclaimed
the surrounding sand dunes
and is currently raising
funds ,to sponsor land re-
search and development
projects there.
"Our tasks are to advise
farmers establishing new
kibbutzim in the Negev and
to help veteran kibbutzim
choose suitable crops," says
DeMalach.
"We are growing to-
matoes, grapes, cotton, as-
paragus and peanuts — we
never dreamed we could
grow these crops on sand
dunes with salty water for
irrigation."
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I
-
Yoel DeMalach
Paradoxically, the fruits
and vegetables grown with
"Drip irrigation — an Is- brackish water are actually
raeli invention — is a pro- sweeter and tastier. "This is
ven method of effectively because produce grown with
washing salts from the soil," salty water is fleshier, and
DeMalach says. "It is keept- their juice and sugars more
ing the salt dissolved. Also, concentrated," DeMalach
the water gets only to the explains. "This is particu-
roots of the plants and pre- larly true of tomatoes and
vents salt crusts from form- melons which are more solid
ing on the leaves."
and have better flavor."
DeMalach is still search-
The Negev experimental
ing for ways to cut costs.
station is currently testing
Next year he plans to intro-
duce underground drip irri- 25 different strains of me-
gation on a model developed lons and a cluster variety of
tomatoes called "Tamar" —
by the Dutch. "With irriga-
the Hebrew for date. Among
tion lines some 10 to 15 in-
some of the more exotic
ches underground, loss of
plants being tested this year
water through evaporation
is a tropical fruit called
can be reduced to almost Pijoia, as well as the Ameri-
nothing," he predicts.
can buffalo gourd which will
DeMalach still has to find be ground into industrial
a way to prevent roots from
starch by a Beersheba firm.
ripping through the plastic
Jewish
National Fund
piping and choking outlet
David Ben-Gurion is shown reading Israel's Declaration of
Independence to the Constituent Assembly in the Tel Aviv
Museum on May 14, 1948.
,
t
t
According to DeMalach,
the idea that the Negev is
dry is not quite true. "After
15 years of oil drilling," he
says, "it's known for certain
that the central Negev vir-
tually floats on an under-
ground ocean of water. It's
all artesian bore water,
3,000 feet below the surface
and mostly brackish — with
salt concentrations ranging
from as low as 500 to as high
as 2,400 milligrams per
cubic meter. You can't drink
it, but it's finre for irriga-
tion."
The key to Ramat
Hanegev's success is adapt-
ing crops to tolerate salt
water. DeMalach believes
the entire Negev can one
day become one vast farm-
ing region.
"Don't forget," he points
out, "that in the Arava
we've been farming with
brackish water for several
years, with salinity at least
as high as in the Negev."
Over 20 agricultural vil-
lages along hte Arava Val-
ley between the Dead Sea
and Eilat are using ad-
vanced techniques, such as
drip irrigation. Israeli far-
mers there have doubled
and even tripled world re-
cords for crop yields.
Dreams of making the
desert bloom suffered a se-
vere setback ten years ago,
when the energy crisis ren-
dered large-scale water de-
salination economically un-
feasible. In recent years, Is-
rael has been investing
heavily in developing even
more effective methods of
cultivating cash crops in
saline, sandy soil irrigated
with brackish water or
treated sewage. Soil ex-
perts, plant geneticists and
agronomists from Ben-
Gurion Unviersity and the
Volcani Institute have
joined the JNF in this, effort.
valves. • "We've almost
solved this probleni," he
says. "A non-poisonous in-
hibiting powder is being
industrial
by
tested
chemists in Beersheba and,
when fully developed, it will
be sprinkled around the ir-
rigation lines to proi
them."
The Ramat Hanegev
crops are irrigated with
Sweet and brackish water
alternately and then tested
for comparative growth,
diseases, plant resilience
and adaptability.
Yahel, a kibbutz in the Arava 40 miles north of Eilat, was
founded by the Reform movement in 1976.
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