Israeli farmers learn old lesson
Media
Part of Panorama
- Title
- Israeli farmers learn old lesson
- Language
- English
- Source
- Panorama XIV (5) May 1962
- Rights
-
- Fulltext
- Israeli farmers £eatn Old Cesson Farming methods which proved enective in the Mid dle East 2,000 years ago may be used by modem farmers in the Negev desert, in Israel. Agricultural research workers there are reconstructing an cient desert farms which, from archeological evidence, flourished during the period 200 B.C. to 600 A.D., first un der the Nabateans, then the Romans and finally the By zantines. The area consists of rugged rocky hillsides, cut by narrow wadis or valleys leading to broad flood plains. The soils on the slopes are very shal low and gravelly, while those at the bottom of the wadis consists of a layer of loamy earth often several metres thick. The ancient desert farmers invented- elaborate methods for collecting and spreading run-off water from cause .subterranean heat still exists at night due to the sur face of the ground having been heated by the sun dur ing the day time. The volume of water ob tainable from low areas ’ in a desert is the same as that from higher locations such as sand dunes. This is because the height of the sand dunes is significant compared with the hills to irrigate the soil in the wadis and flood plains. The Israeli researchers have restored two of the ancient farms with their terraces, walls, spillways and channels. They have made detailed stu dies of rainfall patterns and have started experiments with various crops to test the effi ciency of these ancient farm ing methods. At one farm, fruit trees and vines were planted in 1958 and, in spite of the fact that two years of drought follow ed, the trees have grown ve ry well, irrigated by the run off waters. At the other farm, barley was planted and pro duced a good crop although annual rainfall was only 40 millimeters. Further north in the Negev desert, barley crops which had 80 mm. of rain failed completely. the depth where the under ground water is located. This device, which was re ported in a conference con cerning the utilization of so lar energy held recently in Tokyo, caused quite a sensa tion. It was also reported that it aroused considerable interest among the partici pants at the Rome conference last August. May 1962 91
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