Precision Agriculture Event Held in Israel

in 35 years the world’s population is expected to be over 9 billion people, and farmers will have to increase their food production by about 70%. how can we maximize harvests, despite dwindling water resources and the slow migration of the young generation away from agriculture?

 

the necessary conclusion is that only advanced technology can improve harvests and created more food from a given acre, and this is where precision agriculture comes in. the main idea is that the variety between fields, meaning that not every field needs the same care. “the idea that stands behind precision agriculture is making use of resources efficient in line with the different needs of the space and over time. instead of relating to the average, we take care of the homogenous parts of every field in a changing way in order to optimize harvests,” explains dr. yafit cohen, an agricultural researcher at the volcani center.

 

israel is today considered a leader in precision agriculture and this was evidenced in the 10th annual european conference on precision agriculture, sponsored by the international society for precision agriculture (ispa), which took place in israel for the first time last month. the conference took place at the volcani center and was chaired by dr. yafit cohen and dr. victor alchanatis,, the head of the agricultural engineering department at the volcani center. 300 of the leading researchers in the field participated, including 170 who arrived from 24 countries around the world.

 

the original hebrew article by avi ovligenhertz appeared in the august edition of “yevul si” magazine, click here to view.