In the previous part of the Netherlands: high efficiency and high production capacity, using science and technology to create an agricultural miracle, looking for an agricultural outlet (II) We mentioned the Netherlands, the leader of the agricultural model of small and medium-sized farms in Europe, and today we want to talk about another country that uses technology to strengthen agriculture - Israel. In the high temperature of forty degrees in the desert, it can use greenhouses and technology to grow colorful fruits and flowers, not only to achieve self-sufficiency, but also to export to Europe and the United States. How did the Israelites become an agricultural powerhouse by the day after tomorrow?
<h1>Farming in Israel would have been an unwise choice</h1>
Israel's land area is 22,000 square kilometers, almost half of the land area occupied by China's Hainan Province, two-thirds of which is semi-arid or arid, arable land area is only about 0.44 million square kilometers, most of the soil quality is very poor, natural water resources are scarce, the annual per capita available recycled water is only 90 cubic meters, precipitation is scarce, and far from the market, early farmers do not have agricultural experience.
Despite such enormous challenges, in its short history, Israel has not only successfully transformed agriculture, while ensuring its own food security, but also built a thriving export industry for agricultural products and agrotech, but has also become a global leader in agriculture and water management, spanning low-tech to high-tech solutions for smallholder farmers and large conglomerates.
<h1>Historical background to the development of agriculture in Israel</h1>
Before studying why Israeli agriculture has developed so successfully, it is important to understand the unique heritage and historical context that has shaped Israel's agricultural transformation, and it is in this context that agricultural pioneers have worked tirelessly to achieve today's hard-won success.
Ideological and agricultural embrace
In fact, the original meaning of the Jews was peasant, but after centuries of diaspora abroad, they engaged in various occupations unrelated to agriculture, so the Jews themselves no longer considered themselves synonymous with the peasants.
By the late 19th century, inspired by the Russian socialist movement, they sought to rebuild the Jewish nation on the land of Israel and, above all, to restore the status of jewish peasants by making agriculture a national mission.
This powerful philosophy inspired a large number of learned young people to emigrate from Europe to Israel, and although they had no agricultural experience and despite migrating to the harshest environments to develop the land, their beliefs sustained them, which also explained in large part the indomitable perseverance shown by the early Jewish pioneers and the steadfastness of the later agricultural development.
The birth of agricultural cooperatives
When the pioneers of immigration arrived in Palestine, they encountered a harsh geographical environment and climatic environment, which led to the rampant malaria, typhoid fever and other diseases, and inspired by the Zionist vision, the pioneers of Israel established agricultural cooperatives.
Cooperatives are built on the principles of equality and community, where all income generated by members goes to the cooperative, and all members are evenly distributed according to their work, a bit like our previous production teams.
Under the conditions of the time, it was a more forward-looking plan, maximizing the use of resources, and each farmer was assigned which crops and quantities to plant, which led to a strong central planning system.
Historical heritage
It has to be admitted that British rule has left a lot of heritage for the Israelis, good infrastructure assets such as the railway system to various countries, and various platforms to support agricultural development, such as citrus cooperatives, which also made Jews the fourth largest citrus exporter in the world in the 1930s.
Of course, another advantage of Israel is human capital, although these immigrants have no agricultural experience, but their education level is very high, by 1950, the literacy rate of Jews was 100%, which is unmatched by any country, which also creates an innate advantage for them to strengthen agriculture in science and technology.
<h1>Five key factors for the success of Israeli agriculture</h1>
Despite the dedication of early martyrs and the legacy of British colonialism, Israel began with a difficult starting point. When Israel declared its independence in 1948, it was still a very poor country with a gross domestic product of only a thousand dollars and, like many underdeveloped countries, faced a food crisis in the face of large numbers of immigrants, but these basic elements laid the foundation for the five key factors for Israel's agricultural success.
1. The government's commitment and strong leadership to agricultural development
The first factor in the success of Israeli agriculture is the Government's overall commitment and strong leadership in agricultural development. Without these, agriculture would not have been possible in the Jordan Valley desert, where water resources are a kilometre below the surface.
The government's insistence on agriculture stemmed from its ideological commitment to national mission and composition of the government, which in Israel's first decades had a third of its members of parliament coming from peasants.
In the 1950s and 1960s, 30 per cent of state spending was spent on agriculture and water facilities, 30 per cent on education and 30 per cent on national security, a pattern of distribution that was a clear sign of strong government leadership.
Of course, the biggest change to Israel from this strong leadership is the water system, and as we said earlier, most of Israel is arid and semi-arid, with scarce water sources, which hinders the development of the southern region. In the 1950s, they decided to transport water from the Sea of Galilee in the north to the Negev Desert in the south, a distance of 250 kilometers, which many engineers thought could not be done, but they eventually did.
Agriculture is made up of water, soil, labor, and money, and the government has a key role to play. It needs to provide farmers with technology, infrastructure, fertilization technology, etc., and governments need to ensure aggregation, classification, marketing and distribution, especially exports.
All of this was achieved by government functions, which were crucial to the development of early Israeli agriculture, because farmers did not have to worry about who would buy his food, their most important task was to grow agricultural products, and farmers were not responsible for the entire agricultural value chain.
2. Effective agricultural institutions
In addition to the importance of government leadership, the country's agricultural institutions are also key. Similar to the Dutch agricultural model we mentioned in the previous section, in Israel there is a clear division of labor among the various agricultural institutions. Farmers are responsible only for production and not marketing; the development of planting plans and the coordination of public-private partnerships are done by crop production and marketing committees; trade services have a dedicated agricultural trade service.
Of course, it is necessary to focus on Israel's emphasis on agricultural research and development. In Israel, there is a dedicated agricultural research and development sector, and the salaries of researchers have always been above average, reflecting the government's strong commitment and emphasis on scientific research.
At the same time, researchers have been with farmers almost all the time, studying together, discussing the problems encountered in the planting process, and farmers do not have any sense of inferiority, which may be attributed to the idealization of Israeli farmers and people's respect for land laborers, which is also contributed to by the fact that most Israeli farmers are well educated.
This emphasis is reflected in the establishment of a 10-person chief agricultural scientist whose role is to solve the bottleneck encountered in the actual planting and propose scientific solutions.
Of course, there are other departments, which will not be repeated here. In short, in Israel, they divide the roles in the agricultural chain very finely, allowing professional people to do professional things, rather than one person or department responsible for the entire agricultural chain.
3. Innovation: a way to solve problems
Israel's innovation ecosystem is at the heart of its agricultural success, providing solutions to problems faced by farmers and the private sector along the value chain and constantly creating new opportunities.
In Israel, where all research revolves around the problems farmers encounter, in other countries it's difficult to convince farmers to innovate, but in Israel, on the contrary, farmers are mostly keen to absorb new solutions. This is because farmers trust researchers and extensionists as key partners for success, and this good innovation mechanism makes it a virtuous circle between production and research.
4. Farmers' organizations
Another factor in the success of Israeli agriculture is the organization of farmers into larger units from the outset, and most Israeli agriculture is organized through farmers' cooperatives.
If farmers do not control the value chain, they will miss technological improvements, and they will be depressed by merchants in the trade of agricultural products, and we have encountered such a problem at present, farmers simply do not have bargaining power and pricing power. How to improve farmers' bargaining and pricing power? There is no doubt that a larger organization is needed.
In Israel, there are two forms of farmers' organizations, a Kibbutsm cooperative similar to our previous production team, and a Moshavenm cooperative with private land, but regardless of the cooperative, the final product sales are through cooperatives for unified marketing and distribution. The difference is that in kibbutsm cooperatives, what to plant and how much to plant are planned uniformly, while Moshavinm cooperatives are decided by the members themselves.
5. Agricultural production is market-oriented
The market is the North Star of Israeli farmers, the target market is not only the local food self-sufficiency market, but also the international economic growth market, in the eyes of Israelis, the market is where you make money, if you don't have money, you can't do anything. Its government and the entire agricultural sector will plan in advance according to market potential, avoiding the phenomenon of "grain and poor farmers".
<h1>The European model of small and medium-sized farms inspired us</h1>
Whether it is the Netherlands, Israel or other countries in Europe, the background of agricultural development is unique and unrepeatable, but it can still provide us with valuable experience, some even examples, worth learning from.
1. The importance of combining production, education and research with innovation
Whether it is the Netherlands or Israel, we have seen the golden triangle structure of the innovation system: researchers, extension workers and farmers are closely linked, and our biggest problem at present is the serious decoupling of production, education and research, experts in the office to take care of their own theory, farmers in the field to take care of their own farming, agricultural college students graduate rarely engage in agricultural work.
2. The importance of market leadership and value chain
From the beginning, these countries have targeted their own food security and exports, and have an interest in value-added, and when products are sold, it is crucial to have specialized marketing agencies to sell agricultural products, which ensures that farmers focus on planting and do not need to go to the streets to sell the produce they produce.
3. Organized agriculture is important
Different forms of farmers' organizations are necessary, and these cooperative organizations have been shown to give farmers bargaining power and pricing power through economies of scale and market contact.
4. The key role of governments and functional departments
When it comes to supporting farmers' infrastructure, there needs to be a long-term and clear economic plan, and sometimes government departments may make better decisions than technicians because they have a more comprehensive vision, and the strong leadership of governments and functional departments and the national vision determine how far a country's agriculture can go.
The above is an analysis and view of the agricultural model of small and medium-sized farms in Europe, I sincerely hope that you can carefully read and put forward valuable opinions, the next part will tell the Southeast Asian intensive farming model represented by Japan, and I hope that you can continue to pay attention.
You are also welcome to read other series of articles looking for a way out of agriculture:
Find a way out of agriculture and don't let scale blind us
Why does large-scale agriculture in the United States not work in China? Finding a Way Out of Agriculture (1)
The Netherlands: High efficiency and high production capacity, using science and technology to create agricultural miracles, looking for agricultural outlets (2)