Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development

Dr. Leah Tsror

Established in 1954

The major tasks: to assist the growers in crop production in

this semi-arid area with its major water limitations

Upper Galilee

Coast

Western Negev

Negev Heights

Southern Arava

Limiting factors of agriculture in arid/semi-arid regions * Climate –extreme conditions (Temp; irradiation) * Water – quality, quantity, use efficiency * Soil – poor in organic matter, sand

Threats and opportunities

• Climate crises

• Food crises

• Water availability

• Energy crises

Agricultural R&D in the Negev

In the Western Negev there is about 80,000 ha producing vegetables, grains and fruit. Most of the Israel’s land reserves are in this region. Available water resources: desalinated, recycled, and saline. Climate conditions are special (relatively warm winters) advantageous for crop production for export primarily to Europe

Gilat Research Center - ARO

Research Units

Plant sciences

Field crops

Natural resources & open land

Fruit trees

Vegetables

Soil, water and environment

Soil chemistry and plant nutrition

Environmental physics and irrigation

Plant protection

Entomology

Plant pathology

Nematology

Services for Growers

Plant disease diagnostics laboratory

Soil fertilization analysis and forecasting

Gilat field services laboratory

Citrus depository

• Crop management

• No tillage

• Crop rotation

• Water use efficiency

• Grain quality

David Bonfil, Plant Sciences Traditional and new approaches for rainfed field crops

improvement (mainly wheat) Precipitation – the limiting factor

• Precision agriculture

• Precise fertilization

• Remote sensing

• DSS – Decision Support System

National Center for Wheat Quality

Bioassay procedure

Soils are sampled at 6-10 points per 30-100 ha,

with a mechanical auger (15 cm diameter), at depths of 0-30, 0-45 or 0-

60 cm according to the average rainfall

Bioassay plant growth

• 8 kg of soil are used for growing

the maize in the bioassay tests

• 5 seeds/pot

• Vermiculite mulch

• Grown for 30 days

• Irrigation - to keep pot capacity

• Drainage - none

• Fertilization - none

Arnon Dag, Plant Sciences

Olive- Biology and Cultivation •Biennial bearing

•Irrigation and nutrition

•Cultivation effect on oil yield and quality

•Characterization and preserving traditional olive cultivars

•Mycorrhizae

Fruit tree cultivation in arid conditions •Developing early apricot as an export crop

•Response of grapevine to saline water irrigation

•Developing guava as an export crop

Pollination and bee forage

•Cattle grazing effects on honeybee forage potential •Nutritional aspects of honey bee floral pollen foraging preferences •Crop pollination

National Center for Olive Oil Quality

Eran Raveh, Plant Sciences

Biotic stress Detecting Greening by remote sensing

Horticulture Mineral nutrition, irrigation control,

girdling, Plastic mulching

New Scions & Rootstocks to the Negev

Fruit quality Antioxidants

Abiotic stress

Salinity, radiation, water, temperature

Developing rootstocks salt tolerance models

Measured yield reduction by salinity (% of control)

.7 .8 .9 1.0

pre

dic

ted

yie

ld r

ed

uctio

n in

de

x

(Re

l. C

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ng

. C

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r m

id v

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x K

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-1.0

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-.6

-.4

-.2

0.0

.2

.4

Cleo639

Volka

Troyer SO

Y=-14.89X2+31.12X-15.96

R2=0.956

Stem water content (L/L)

0.32 0.34 0.36 0.38 0.40 0.42

Ste

m w

ate

r p

ote

ntia

l (a

tm)

-25

-20

-15

-10

-5

0Y(SWP)=-0.159X

2+1.421X-318.7 R

2=0.931

Lemon

15 21 27 32 38 44

Stem EC Probe (mS/m)

Developing plant-based irrigation sensor (stem EC probe) for monitoring tree water status

Communication center Checking the sensors Installing the sensor

Pre

ssu

re b

om

b

Vegetable crop physiology under stress conditions

• Focus on vegetable production under protected environment

(tomato and pepper) and in the open field (potato)

• Elucidate the factors which limit vegetable development under

suboptimal conditions (temperatures, water quality and

deficiency, etc.)

• Characterized the influence of abiotic stress on physiological,

biochemical and hormonal process in flower and fruit

development

• Main research topic will be on how abiotic stress such as

extreme temperatures influence on auxin production and

transport in different flower organ during flower and fruit

development

Haggai Yasuor, Plant Sciences

Pollination and fruit set under high temperature

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

B C T Z

Net Plastic

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

B C T Z

Net

Plastic

Fru

it w

eigh

t (g

)

See

d w

eigh

t (g

)

Plastic Net Damage pollen

Cultivar Cultivar

Heat related pale spots in Pepper

50 100 25 200 400

Chemistry & Fertilization – Uri Yermiyahu

Plant nutrition & salinity

Minerals toxicity in plants

Nutrition in organic management

Use of desalinated water

Soil, water & environment

Nitrogen concentration in irrigation water

Methods to decrease plant boron toxicity

Uri Yermiyahu, Soil Water & Environmental Sciences

Mineral nutrition of olives

תגובת תמרים למים מליחים יטבתה- בורוןועודפי

טמון טפטוף

הסבת מטע זית

מבעל להשקיה גשם חורפי -המלחת מטעים

Physics & Irrigation – Alon Ben-Gal

Soil, water & environment

Use of saline and reclaimed sewage water Irrigation in arid areas Optimizing irrigation

Research focus: X-treme agriculture: managing water in the arid zones I. Measuring and modeling crop response to multiple stress causing conditions

Relative applied irrigation water

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0R

ela

tive

yie

ld0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

desalinated

blended

saline

Relative applied irrigation water

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0

Rela

tive

dra

ina

ge

0.0

0.3

0.6

0.9

1.2

Relative applied irrigation water

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0

Le

ac

hin

g f

racti

on

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

Salt load (ton NaCl ha-1

season-1

)

0 5 10 15 20 25

Rela

tive

yie

ld

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

A B

C D

Relative applied irrigation water

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0

Rela

tive y

ield

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

desalinated

blended

saline

Relative applied irrigation water

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0

Rela

tive d

rain

ag

e

0.0

0.3

0.6

0.9

1.2

Relative applied irrigation water

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0

Leach

ing

fra

cti

on

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

Salt load (ton NaCl ha-1

season-1

)

0 5 10 15 20 25

Rela

tive y

ield

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

A B

C D

Pepper

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

EC 0

EC 1

EC 3

EC 5.5

Melon

Relative Irrigation (I Tp

-1)

Re

lati

ve

yie

ld (

Yr)

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

1.2

EC 0

EC 1.2

EC 3

EC 6

EC 9

Agronomic, Economic and Environmental implications of irrigation management decisions

B in irrigation water (mM L-1

)

0 1 2 3 4 5

Re

lati

ve

yie

ld (

Y Y

m-1

)

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

1.2

Tomato EC 1

Tomato EC 3

Tomato EC 6

Tomato EC 9

Dates EC 1

Dates EC 12

N in irrigation water (mM L-1)

0 2 4 6 8

Rela

tiv

e y

ield

(Y

Ym

-1)

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

1.2

Corn EC 0.5

Onion EC 0.5

Corn EC 6

Onion EC 7

toxicity X salinity water X salinity

nutrition X salinity

Consideration of desalinated water for irrigation?

Alon Ben-Gal, Soil Water & Environmental Sciences

II. Irrigation of olives, dates and grapevines: managing water for optimum yields and product quality E

T (

L d

-1 t

ree

-1)

30

60

90

ste

m (

MP

a)

-3

-2

-1

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

gs (

mm

ol L-1

s-1

)

50

100

150

20/07 23/07 26/07 29/07 01/08 04/08

PP

A (

kP

a*m

in)

90

120

150

180 D

C

B

A

Date palms – salt and B in water

Olive water status response and monitoring

Phyllis Weintraub, Plant Protection

1. Elucidation and control of insect vectors of viruses and bacteria

a. Control of PVY aphid vectors in seed potatoes

Aphids Leafhopper

b. Control of leaf- and planthopper vectors of phytoplasmas in carrots, grapes and flowers

c. Elucidation of vectors of new ‘Candidatus’ diseases

2. Biological control of spider mites and whiteflies on greenhouse mint

Amblyseius swirskii Phytoseiulus persimilis

Spider mites Whiteflies

3.Scirtothrips dorsalis – phenology, control and virus vector capacity

4. Conservation biological control – providing alternative food sources (pollen) in open fields and greenhouses.

Scirtothrips dorsalis

Yuji Oka, Plant Protection

• Soil amendments

• nematode-resistant rootstocks

• Induced resistance

• Naturally occurring nematicidal compounds

• Nematode control by environmentally-friendly methods

• Development of chemical nematicides

Grafting as a nematode control method

Non-grafted

Grafted

50

Grafted and non-grafted pepper plants grown in Meloidogyne incognita infested soil

0

10

20

30

40

Non-grafted Grafted on Grafted on

Yie

ld (

kg)/

20

pla

nts

Susceptible Resistant rootstock rootstock

“Celica”

0

2

4

6

8

10

“Celica” Susceptible

Gal

ling

ind

ex (

0-1

0)

Resistant rootstock rootstock

Epidemiology and control of soil- and seed- tuber borne diseases, focus on potato Pathogen interactions with biotic and a-biotic factors, Pathogenicity mechanisms Biofumigation Plant Diseases Diagnostics; Monitoring pathogens in propagative material, compost & soil Climate change affects disease expression! Dickeya

Leah Tsror, Plant Protection

Rhizoctonia solani Colletotrichum coccodes

Helminthosporium solani

Streptomyces scabies? ?Streptomyces

sp

Spongospora subterranaea

Potato diseases

PDDL – plant disease diagnostic lab •Diagnostics •Monitoring of pathogens in: propagative material, soil, compost, water Metodos: Classical microbiology, microscopy, serology (ELISA), molecular (PCR, RT-PCR)