As a State that is second only to Rajasthan in the country in terms of large tracts of drought-prone land, Karnataka has always been at the receiving end of nature’s vagaries. But Gil Haskel, Deputy Director-General at Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and head of MASHAV — Israel’s Agency for International Development Co-operation, is very optimistic about Karnataka’s agricultural and horticultural prospects.
Mr. Haskel, whose country is in the process of setting up 30 centres of excellence in different parts of India, including three in Karnataka, for promoting particular crop varieties, says the only way Karnataka and similar States can deal with adverse climatic conditions is total transformation from rain-fed agriculture to cent per cent climate-resilient agricultural system. Excerpts from the conversation:
Agriculture has been a gamble with monsoon for Karnataka. As a country that has excelled in drought conditions, what can Israel offer to solve this?
Israel has seen drought for 10 years in the last 20 years. Over 50% of land in Israel is arid unlike Karnataka which has semi-arid land too. These areas have registered an average rainfall of just 20 to 25 mm. But our 80% of vegetable exports are being sourced from such difficult regions. This has become possible owing to our zero dependency on climate. The only way forward for Karnataka is to completely move into climate-resilient farm system like us. One example is use of polyhouses which are artificially climate-controlled. We are going to offer various climate-resilient technologies through our centres.
Are you going to promote native drought-prone varieties or planning to introduce some of your varieties here?
We will do both, depending upon requirements. Ultimately, the essence of cent per cent climate-resilient agriculture is growing anything at any time of the year in any region.
But the concept of high-tech farming is being met with negative impact too such as huge losses owing to the problem of nematodes (harmful bacteria in soil).
We have decided to address this issue with promotion of various technologies, including soil-less cultivation. In addition to this, a holistic approach of scientifically monitoring and treating all the processes right from seedling to harvesting will be adopted.
How can States such as Karnataka deal with their limited water resources?
They have to adopt water-conservation technologies for efficient use of water. They should also look at recycling wastewater in farming. Israel uses 80% of its wastewater for farming after treating it. If there is still shortage of water, the possibility of using seawater through desalination could also be considered. But this is going to be costlier. A delegation of Israeli experts is in consultation with Indian authorities to help provide such water recycling technologies.
The next big thing between Indo–Israel relationship is bringing in water recycling and desalination technologies to India
There is a view that high-tech farming goes against the concept of organic farming as it involves spraying of high dozes of pesticides.
We have decided to introduce biological control of pest management to prevent or reduce use of pesticides.
In India, the youth are moving away from agriculture as it is being seen as a loss-making enterprise. What is the situation in Israel?
In Israel, the youth are taking to farming as it is profitable and they can earn well by exporting high-value produce to Europe. Each State in India too should identify such potential markets in the interest of turning their farming into a business proposition. This will end farmers’ suicides too.
