Zeraim Gedera’s Support Unit Offers Its New Product for Farmers

grontec ®, the agro-technical support unit of zeraim gedera ltd, recently completed three year’s work on the development of its new product for farmers. this innovative program is designed to offer consultation to growers in israel’s southern arava region to help every grower maximize yields.

  extreme weather conditions, as well as market fluctuations, foreign competition and the risk of plant disease and pests all affect the israeli farmers’ future, with last season’s exceptionally early cold spells being a case in point.  kanat – the insurance fund for natural risks in agriculture –has already reported the payment of record compensation amounting to about 129 million nis for damages incurred during 2013.

  with its new program zeraim gedera hopes that the continuous tracking of the plant’s development and correct planning of the growth strategy will attain the maximum yield in normal weather conditions and equally important, will limit the impact of unusual weather on the crops.

  dr. itay miyara, an agricultural expert who manages the grontec unit of zeraim gedera ltd. – syngenta noted that agriculture in the arava with the hot conditions and solar radiation together with the persistent water shortage all force even the most experienced farmers to cope over and over again with the challenges of growing crops in this region.  

   the company’s solution suggested by grontec ® unit includes the provision of a growth package named “from seven to ten”, that calls for training a large team of agronomists to accompany the growers of peppers in the arava on an individual basis.  the proposed new service, which has been implemented successfully during the past three seasons in many plots, integrates pioneering technologies with direct personal guidance for the growers. the work evolves the continual monitoring of the company’s wide variety of peppers using automatic sensors which generate real-time data and transmit them to the monitoring program.

  the automatic monitoring is further supported by a technician who visits the plots regularly to manually collect additional data.  syngenta’s computerized data analysis system then processes the information and transmits the results directly to the agronomist and the farmer to ensure constant monitoring and early warnings when the need arises.  this information together with the agronomist’s inspection of the field conditions lead to the optimal recommendations for the crops’ continued growth.
 miyara concludes that the idea here is to enable the farmer to cope with the profession’s frequent demands and facilitate a rapid response to changes all aimed at growing an optimal crop with no additional inputs.  our professional teams continue all the time to learn and develop new knowledge aimed at assisting the growers.