A Tough Year for Israel’s Remarkable Farmers

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24 Tevet 5778

11 January 2018

The News on the Israel Street

Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours . . .

A stabbing attack was thwarted at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hevron by alert Border Police officers who noticed three Palestinians acting suspiciously.

“Rocks” and Molotovs were thrown by Palestinian terrorists at Curve 160 near Hevron, Beit El, Issawiya, Hizma, Hamdat in the Jordan Valley, Jiftlik, on Uzi Narkiss, Athenin, Route 55, Deir Abu Mashal, the Jerusalem Tunnel Road, Kochav Hashahar, the Gush Etzion-Hevron Road, Beit Ummar, Madame, Yitzhar, Psagot, El Muayyir, Havat Gilad, Anata, Funduk, Halhul, Husan, Adam Square, the T-Junction, Amos, Road 446 north of Nili, the Zif Junction southeast of Hevron, and Al-Fawwar southwest of Hevron among other places.

All told, there were more than 40 terror attacks reported by citizens to Rescue Judea and Samaria, hakolhayehudi, and rotter.

Remember yesterday’s “Useless” quote on israelstreet . . .

That quote came from Samaria leader Yossi Dagan who called on PM Netanyahu to turn Havat Gilad into an authorized town and construct 700 residences there to retaliate for the gory murder of Rabbi Shevach two days ago.

We pointed out that Netanyahu would never agree to those suggestions.

However, this morning Netanyahu instructed the Ministry of Defense to connect Havat Gilad to the electrical grid. At least, the grieving family will now have electricity to power the lights in its mourning tent. 

Terrorism or not, the trucks keep rolling . . .

Nevermind that terrorism is rampant in Judea and Samaria or that 35 missiles were fired at southern Israel by Palestinian terrorists last month: Israel continues pouring humanitarian supplies into Palestinian Gaza.

Yesterday alone, 334 trucks carrying 9,799 tons of goods crossed from Israel into Gaza.

TODAY’S BLOG:

A Tough Year for Israel’s Remarkable Farmers

Hothouse farming of vegetables with micro-irrigation on a kibbutz in Israel.

First some context: 

*Despite the fact that Israeli farmers lead the world in agricultural innovation, Israeli agriculture occupies an increasingly small percentage of the country’s GDP–just over 2%.

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*The total amount of land under cultivation in Israel is 1,070,000 acres (4300 km2)–approximately 20% of the country’s land area. There are 725 agricultural communities (including kibbutzim and moshavim) in Israel.

*Israel produces 95% of its own food; imports are primarily grain, coffee, and sugar.

Within this context, it was reported this week that Israeli farmers suffered 180,000,000 shekels ($52 million dollars) of damage to their crops and livestock in 2017.

You might think that the main problem was drought–especially in the rainless farmlands of the north. However, most of the damage was caused by unseasonably cold weather.

The hardest hit vegetable crops included tomatoes (some might classify as fruit), peppers, and cucumbers.

Those farmers who were compensated by the government the most for their losses were:

Vegetable growers (44 million shekels)

Poultry farmers (27 million shekels)

Fruit (primarily apples and watermelons but not including bananas and citrus) growers (20 million shekels)

Banana growers (18 million shekels)

Citrus growers (16 million shekels)

Cattle/dairy farmers (15.5 million shekels)

Israeli cows produce the highest amounts of milk per animal in the world–22,457 pounds of milk per cow per year.

All in all, given the facts that half of the land area of Israel is desert, that there is an ongoing problem with sufficient water resources for agriculture, and that there are extreme exigencies of weather, Israeli farmers are a remarkable group and the country must continue doing everything possible to support them.