Abstract
The objective of this paper was to review the irrigation system of Israel and to identify the most common irrigation methods used for safe, efficient and sustainable agricultural production in arid and semi-arid regions of the world. Israel is one of the most densely populated countries in the world and characterized by desert and semi-desert climatic conditions. Major constraints of the country include: Frequent droughts, desertification of agricultural land, rapid urbanization, depleting resources: technological uncertainty and high cost of non-conventional sources, degradation of water quality and increased water scarcity. Among these constrains, water scarcity is the primary limiting factor in Israel agriculture while the country depends on irrigation. The main water source for agriculture is pressure drip irrigation systems. Drip irrigation has the highest water efficiency rate in agriculture, reaching a 70 to 80% rate, versus open irrigation, which achieves 40%. Recycled use of water, waste water, adding nutrients mixed in with the water and desalination are the recent new innovation used to solve problem of water scarcity in Israel. Therefore, technology currently innovated to alleviate problem of irrigation water resources by Israel should have to be adopted in arid and semi arid of the world to increase the productivity. Key words: Water resource, types of irrigation, drip irrigation system in Israel.
Highlights
Israel is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, while yet only 20% of the land is arable and half of that has to be irrigated
The land holding allotted to a farming unit in the collective and cooperative settlements vary in size
In turn, can lead to water saving up to 50% compared to the sprinkler systems
Summary
Israel is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, while yet only 20% of the land is arable and half of that has to be irrigated. In Israel, where climatic conditions change from semi-arid in the north to arid in the south, agriculture is completely depended on irrigation. Israel meets most of its food requirements through domestic production to produce over 5 million tons of field crops, 1.15 billion liters of milk, 1.6 billion eggs and 1.2 billion flowers for export (www.un.org/esa/agenda21/natlinfo/). While the major constraints include: increased water scarcity; depleting resources, frequent droughts; degradation of water quality; technological uncertainty and high cost of nonconventional sources; rapid urbanization, abandonment and desertification of agricultural land (www.un.org/esa/agenda21/natlinfo/). Water scarcity is the main limiting factor in Israeli agriculture and the country depends on irrigation to increase its crop yields; about 50% of the land is irrigated.
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