Israel of 50 years ago: the flowering of the man-made wilderness

Israel renews the cultivation of lands damaged by thousands of years of poor use. This achievement is an example to the world, which must increase the food supply to feed the growing population.

By Walter K. Laudermilk

Introduction to the Scientific American Israel system:

This article, first published in the April 1960 issue of Scientific American, is presented here as an addition to the special review "50, 100 and 150 years ago", which appears in the June-July 2010 issue of Scientific American Israel. The author of the article, Walter K. Laudermilk, was a world-renowned expert in soil conservation. He advised on land and water issues for the British Mandate government as early as the 30s, when he came up with the idea of ​​a national carrier combined with the Sea Canal. In the 20s he advised Israeli governments on these issues.

The article in front of you reflects a world where it was believed without question that science and technology would bring only good. The development of the land for the benefit of man is presented here without any reservations regarding the consequences that man's actions have on the environment. And yet, there is a constant awareness, which sometimes seems to disappear later, that resources are limited.

The article also sheds light on the Israeli governments' attitude towards the development of the young country: a preference for aid in knowledge over material aid. In this context, the Minister of Development at the time, Mordechai Bentov, said in English: We don't need powdered milk, we need Lowdermilk.

The article could not be written today also for political reasons and it takes us back to the days when young Israel was presented as a role model to the whole world.

The State of Israel has taken it upon itself to create new agriculture on old and damaged land. The Israelites of the 20th century did not find their promised land "flowing with milk and honey," as their ancestors found it 3,300 years ago. The Israelites of the 20th century arrived in a land of creeping dunes along a once-green coast, a land of malaria-infested swamps and bare limestone hills that lost, according to estimates, a layer of an entire meter that was spread as barren drift across the plains or washed out to sea with floodwaters who painted the beautiful blue of the Mediterranean time and again with a murky heat from horizon to horizon. The fate of the Land of Israel is similar to the fate of the countries of the entire Middle East. Since the decline of the Byzantine Empire, about 1,300 years ago, there has been a decline in productivity, population and culture in the region. The signs left by the boundaries of the ancient forests on the treeless slopes, and the remains of dams, aqueducts and canals that irrigated the terraces in the mountains, remains of cities, bridges and paved main roads, all these testified that the country once had a great culture whose population was much larger than today's and had a higher level of welfare .

In 1959, on the occasion of the end of the celebrations of the first decade of the State of Israel, 485 farmers from 37 countries came to an international conference in Israel to witness its achievements. They found a nation of two million people, which has doubled its size in this decade, mainly due to immigration. However, Israel has already become an exporter of agricultural products and has almost reached the goal of agricultural independence and a balance between exports and imports of food products. Israel almost doubled the area of ​​cultivated land to about 4 million dunams, drained 180 thousand dunams of swamps and expanded the irrigated areas to 300 million dunams. The State of Israel has doubled the supply of groundwater from wells many times over and has already made quite a bit of progress in utilizing and routing the little water on the ground. In large areas of uncultivated land, it established new pastures for raising animals, and planted 37 million trees in new forests and protective strips. And everything was achieved within the framework of a national program that rested on the dedication of the citizens and the best understanding and technology offered by modern agricultural science. Israel is not only renewing ancient times, but seeks to use the land as much as possible, including realizing possibilities that the ancients did not know.

For the farmers who participated in the conference, many of whom came from the new and less developed countries, Israel's example served as proof and hope. Humanity is in a constant race against hunger. The uncertainty regarding its results is not because the Earth's resources are limited, even if they are looted as they are, but because of a delay in the application of advanced agricultural methods and a failed distribution of the food produced today. More than two thirds of the world's population suffer from malnutrition. Most of them live in countries where people live the longest in organized societies. There, with a few exceptions, the land is in the worst condition. Israel's example shows that it is possible to redeem the land, and that increasing the food supply will be able to catch up and overtake the birth rate that will double the world's population of 2.8 billion people by the end of this century. Israel is a testing ground for all the arid lands in the world, especially those near its Arab neighbors, where landscapes like those that Israel flourished still stand in their prime.

Israel's achievement is even more impressive in view of the fact that politics did not particularly take into account the considerations of territory and drainage basins when the country's borders were determined. The 20,000 square kilometers allocated to the State of Israel in the partition plan of Palestine in 1948 is a narrow strip of land along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, approximately 426 kilometers long and 19 to 112 kilometers wide. It includes only part of the Jordan Valley, which is the most important river in the region, with its three lakes: the Hula, 70 meters above sea level at its northern end; Kinneret, 14 kilometers south of it, 207 meters below sea level; and the Dead Sea, 104 kilometers south of Kinneret and 393 meters below sea level. More than half of Israel's territory is desert or almost desert, and most of the agricultural land is found along the narrow coastal plain, in the Galilee mountains and in the western part of the Jordan Valley; From Lake Hula south, to about 40 kilometers south of the Sea of ​​Galilee, where the state border meets the river. This division of the country and the constant hostility of its Arab neighbors continue to thwart plans for the full utilization of the water supply by all parties in this volatile region.

In terms of climate, Israel is very similar to California. It rains in the winter, and the summer is long and dry. Also, there is a very large difference between the amounts of these irregular rainfalls between one end of the country and the other. From an average of about 1,000 millimeters per year in the north, to about 650 in Jerusalem, and to less than 50 millimeters of rain per year in Eilat on the coast of the Gulf of Aqaba, at the edge of the Negev desert. The temperature differences are also very extreme between nearby places; In the mountains it is cool and in the Jordan Valley it is warm and tropical. In the spring, a hot and dry wind, called Hamsin, blows for days from the desert to the east and causes severe damage to the unprotected crops. Although these conditions are quite difficult, since the time of the Roman Empire there has not been any noticeable deterioration in the climate. The same plants still thrive in protected corners, and the springs mentioned in the Bible still flow. The "desert" that took over the land that was flourishing before, is the work of man and not of nature.

Fortunately, there is a geological feature that helps the rainwater to be captured and preserved: the country's porous limestone absorbs a significant portion of the rainwater and disperses the water far from the relatively rainy places through an intricate network of underground aquifers. The total amount of water coming from springs exceeds the water flowing in Jordan: one large spring in the hills at the foot of the Judean Mountains is the source of the Yarkon River. Another important source of fresh water is the heavy dew that accumulates during the summer nights and helps the grain to grow in the mountains.

Israel's agricultural reconstruction began in the 80s, with the arrival of the first immigrants of the young Zionist movement who fled the pogroms in Eastern Europe. They could purchase "untapped" wetlands on the coastal plain. These swamps were created due to the formation of alluvium in the streams and due to the dam created by the dunes creeping into the interior of the country. With bravery and hard work, the first settlers managed to dry up the swamps and establish successful agriculture on their land. But until the establishment of the state, these efforts amounted to "first aid" only.

When the new government set out to outline a comprehensive plan for the development of the country's land and water resources, it had the opportunity to consult with several renowned experts among the country's citizens: experts in forestry, horticulture, soil science, plant breeding and civil engineering who came as refugees from Germany and Central Europe. But since a significant part of its growing population came from the Arab countries of North Africa and the Middle East, Israel lacked experts in many fields necessary to establish modern agriculture in a short time. That is why the Israeli government was one of the first to turn to the technical assistance offered by special agencies of the United Nations and which offered the Point Four program of the United States. I had the privilege of participating in this rewarding enterprise as a member of the delegation that operated in Israel on behalf of the "Food and Agriculture Organization" of the United Nations from 1951 to 1953. The delegation advised to the government in the preparation of the national plan for the development of the lands and the recruitment of staff for its execution; And again between the years 1955 and 1957, when I helped establish an agricultural engineering department at the Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology.

The first assignment, which they started in 1951 and finished in 1953, was to prepare a complete survey of the lands. These are the 9,631 square kilometers north of the 30 degree latitude where agriculture can be developed, about half the area of ​​Israel. It was one of the most thorough surveys of its kind done in the world, it provided a solid foundation for determining land use policy and the tremendous task of preparing the land and developing a water system that was later approached. Classification according to final use of the surveyed lands shows that if adequate irrigation is taken care of, about 40% of the land, about 4,000 square kilometers, could be used for general cultivation; about 15% for plantations, vineyards, pastures and other uses where the land is covered with vegetation all year round; 20% suitable for natural pasture without irrigation; and 25% for forests, reserves, and pit areas. Outside the scope of the detailed survey, in the Negev, an extensive preliminary survey was used as a basis for a plan to develop pastures and cultivate fodder crops in those places where the scanty winter runoff can be diverted or stored for irrigation purposes.

An important element of this land survey was their classification according to relative exposure to wind and water drift. This classification was used by the Israeli Land Conservation Division [of the Ministry of Agriculture] as an outline plan for measures to preserve the best lands and for the future training of land that is currently unusable. The problem of drifting is aggravated in engineering relation to the slope of the land. The first line of defense against erosion fights the dynamics of the raindrops and includes soil management measures that are also necessary to maintain crop quantities, such as the accumulation of organic matter to increase the water absorption capacity of the soil and padding the soil with crop residues to absorb energy and reduce the drift of the splash of the drop. Plowing parallel to topographic elevation lines and planting the crops in strips along them are the second line of defense, which usually protects well against storms that are not too intense. These protection methods can be used by the individual farmer or the agricultural kibbutz, and throughout the country the Division for Soil Conservation encourages their application through education and demonstration. But the rain in Israel usually falls in torrents. Most of it falls in a few heavy storms in the rainy season and in extreme storms once every few years. Where these rains burden the first two lines of defense, the Soil Conservation Division and its engineers must install more sophisticated and expensive measures. The slopes should be moderated with wide terraces to collect and slow down the runoff during a storm. The canals must be connected by canals so that the accumulated water does not make canals in the fields. In such a situation it is possible to store the rainwater in ponds and surface reservoirs, or let it seep and raise the groundwater level. This line of defense needs to be engineered appropriately and precisely, because flowing water does not forgive mistakes and omissions in planning.

One of the results of the drifting caused by human actions in the past, was the formation of swamps in the narrow coastal plain, especially in the Hadera area, Kabri, and the Jezreel Valley. Following on from the work started by the first settlers, the State of Israel qualified these lands to the end. The swamps were drained and eucalyptus trees were planted at the lowest points. Citrus orchards were planted in the higher areas.

A more significant engineering challenge was posed by the swamp of the Hula Valley in the north of the Jordan Valley. In Roman times and even before, this area was fertile and densely populated. But he was a deserted swamp and the source of the spread of malaria in the whole country. Sediments from the higher areas north of the valley filled the northern end of the Hula Lake, creating an enlarged swamp. Today, the marsh has been drained by widening and deepening the mouth of the lake, which lowered its level, and with the help of a system of drainage canals. After the gumma was cut, the rich peat deposits that were underneath yielded fertile soil good for cultivation, similar to the peat lands in the delta at the head of San Francisco Bay. The Hula Development Authority estimates that this little paradise will sustain 100,000 people in intensive agriculture: growing vegetables, grapes, fruit, peanuts, grains, sugar cane, and even rice, and also fish (in ponds that will be watered on the bottom of the dried up lake). The yield of fruits and vegetables will soon require the installation of processing and preservation factories nearby. Another advantage to the cultivation of this land is water conservation: reducing the evaporation area of ​​the lake and the marshes that were around it will save enough water to irrigate 70 to 100 thousand dunams, depending on the amount of precipitation in the land to which the water will flow. The Hula development plant is not huge in size, but it symbolizes Israel's determination to utilize its resources as much as possible.

The development of water sources and irrigation systems is the greatest achievement of the new nation, and differentiates its agriculture very prominently from the agriculture prevalent among its Arab neighbors in almost all agricultural fields. Since the days of Abraham our father, days of "And there was a famine in the land", agriculture in the region was at the mercy of the fickle winter rains. In the ancient land of Israel, only small areas were irrigated to which it was possible to direct water that flowed by gravity from solid springs. These canals have long been out of use, and at the beginning of the 20th century there was almost no irrigation in the Holy Land. Within 10 years, Israel quadrupled its irrigated area, from 300,000 dunams to about 1,200,000. It is this achievement that allowed the absorption of the many immigrants who came. Irrigation increased the yield per acre by three to six times relative to the amount of yield in Baal agriculture in the region, and ensured stability in the yield each year.

Since most of the water is pumped from wells, irrigation in Israel is done by sprinkling, and not by pouring in furrows or canals. The network of pumps and pipes supplies water at a relatively high pressure, but at a low current. The water engineers soon discovered that the water goal was the most suitable method for this mode of supply and for irrigating sandy soil and harder, more stony soil, which could not be leveled. The large investment in pumps and pipelines is offset, and even more so, with the continuous and intensive cultivation made possible by irrigation and with the urgent need to settle the immigrants and allow them to support themselves by working the land. Every year another 100 to 120 thousand dunams are added to the total irrigated area, and it is expected that the trend will continue until the water supply is fully utilized.

Meanwhile, much field research is being done to find the most efficient way to use water. In the northern Negev, for example, they discovered that irrigation with about 150 millimeters of water, just before the winter rains, saturates the soil to a depth of about 1.2 meters, and is equivalent to about 500 millimeters of rain, more than enough to grow grains in the winter. In many types of soil, irrigation causes serious drainage problems. Evaporation of water from the soil and plants, which occurs due to "wasteful" irrigation, leaves behind the salts that were dissolved in the water. After a few years, the accumulation of salts can reach toxic levels. There are crops, like sugar beets for example, that absorb some of those salts, and you can combine them in a crop rotation to reduce this accumulation. But in every crop, the water must be drained in time to remove the salt, and the chemical composition of the soil must be monitored.

The irrigation and cultivation of vast areas in Israel required great efforts to repair the damage caused by centuries of drifting. The rocky slopes are usually covered with a "drift pavement" consisting of relatively heavy stones that the rain splashes cannot move them, nor can the runoff water that washed away the top soil during a storm. There are areas in the country where the farmers cleared their fields and piled these stones in large piles. In places where drifting has exposed the rock or a gap in the deep soil has made channels to the point where it cannot be plowed, they have made easier use of the land, such as pasture land and woods. In many places in the more mountainous areas, today's farmers have been able to take advantage of the soil conservation works of the ancient Phoenicians. Research I have done shows that the Phoenicians were the first to cultivate and cultivate mountain slopes in Baal agriculture, 3,000 to 4,000 years ago, and therefore were the first to encounter the drift problem. They were also the first to curb the drift by plowing along the elevation lines and by building stone walls that turn the slope into a graded succession of flat earth plots. Most of these ancient terraces have been neglected and destroyed. Today they are being built and remodeled. Since the terraces are narrow and suitable only for manual processing, the practice is to collect the stones from old terraces and stack them in wider ridges, parallel to the elevation lines, which creates a slightly sloping terrace that can be processed with a tractor. It turns out that sprinkler irrigation makes these new terraces suitable for vineyards and orchards.

In those considerable parts of the country that cannot be cultivated or forested due to lack of water, efforts are being made to develop the land for grazing. Throughout the Near East and the Middle East and North Africa, the land has been suffering from overgrazing for more than a thousand years. What the sheep do not eat, the goats eat, and what the goats leave, the camels will lick. After these hardy animals have roamed the land all through the long, hot, scorching summer, there is almost no vegetation left to protect the ground from the washes of the winter rains. But from those species of pasture grasses and plants that survived in rocky places and thickets of thorns where the goats and camels do not reach, you can tell that the land was once a paradise for shepherds. The good grass and grass cover that returned quickly after the goats were removed from the land by the Israeli government in 1948 proves this assessment. The Soil Conservation Division also began to plant native plants and species imported from the United States and South Africa on these lands. Also, certain species of woody shrubs and low trees are planted to prevent drift and to provide twigs for cattle food; The rich beans of the sturdy carob trees, for example, yield the same amount of food as a plot of barley of the same size. Measures to divert the rainwater and distribute it in the pastures increase the yield even more. Herds of cattle and dairy cattle are now beginning to multiply in the restored pastures.

Even at the beginning of the Jews' immigration to the Land of Israel, the planting of trees became a symbol of a confident look ahead. Forestry today occupies an important part in curbing drift, in preparing barren hills for cultivation, and in protecting orchards and garden plots from the wind that comes from the sea or the desert. About 250 million trees, of local or imported varieties selected by Israel's Experimental Forestry Farm, are to be planted within 10 years from today. Raising a stock of seedlings in nurseries and planting trees on uncultivated slopes, roadsides, protective strips, and ridges provide temporary employment for the new immigrants, until they are established. Already today the new forests yield raw wood, rods, and fuel products, which are very expensive commodities in non-forested countries.

The land survey was used to protect the best agricultural land from being swallowed up by the growing cities and towns in Israel. Along the coast, for example, the communities are encouraged to expand to the sands, rather than to the cultivated lands around them. About 10% of the area along the coast is covered with dunes, and these are usually pushed by the western winds and cover good plots, orchards and even houses.

Experiments are being conducted today to stop the sands by stabilizing the sand surface and trapping sand grains into larger grains than membrane cups. This is done by planting hardy shrubs and sand grasses and plants with fibrous roots such as alfalfa, and irrigating certain areas with wastewater and treated sewage. The rapid growth of the plants in the experimental plots turns the sand into a stable material similar to soil within a few years and is suitable for planting trees and even certain agricultural crops. But full training of the squads for agriculture is still in research stages.

Ultimately, the expansion of agriculture is limited by the water supply. The Israeli Water Commission wants the supply of water to be doubled by 1966 compared to the supply in 1956, meaning a national supply of 17.9 billion cubic meters per year. A central component of the plan is based on a survey I conducted in 1938 and 1939 for the US Department of Agriculture and on the proposal, which resulted from that survey, to establish an authority for the Jordan Valley, which would open as much as possible water sources above and below the surface of the valley, for the entire area of ​​the original mandate of the Commonwealth of Nations, including the Kingdom of Jordan and today's State of Israel. The proposal called for the development of groundwater and the flow of water from the northern Jordan within the Land of Israel to the dry lands in the south, and the flow of water from the Yarmukh, on the eastern side of the Jordan Valley, to irrigate a promising subtropical area in the past of the eastern Jordan. To replace the filling of the Dead Sea with the water of these rivers, water from the Mediterranean Sea will flow into it through canals and tunnels, and these will activate two arrays of hydraulic power plants on their way down, almost 400 meters below sea level. This sea water will not only generate electricity, but will also maintain the level of the Dead Sea for the mining of the minerals and chemicals found in it in huge quantities. The International Advisory Council of Engineers announced that the plan is being implemented. Today, the Israeli government is carrying out every part of the plan that does not require cooperation from neighboring Arab countries. The rammed concrete segments of the 2.7 meter diameter main pipeline that will carry water from the northern part of the Jordan south to the Negev are now being manufactured and placed in place in a large canal, and the tunnels through which it will pass between hills and mountains along the way are already being excavated.

Besides this large plant, smaller water sources are preserved in Israel, for use and reuse, such as the sewage of the cities and the water of the Ensen streams in the coastal plain. In the south of the Negev, where the annual amount of precipitation is less than 150 millimeters per year, the Soil Conservation Division has adopted the methods of the ancient plants, and is storing floodwater for irrigating fodder crops.

The future looks better now that progress has been made in desalination of seawater. They will soon try a new method developed in government laboratories in two experimental facilities, each of which has a production of 946 cubic meters per day. Success in this mission will be a great victory not only for Israel, but for all the arid countries in the world.

Addicted to difficulty, the State of Israel and its citizens carve out solutions to problems that other nations will also have to deal with one day. There are no more continents to discover, explore and exploit. The best soils on earth are inhabited and cultivated. And all of them, to one degree or another, need the same training and land conservation measures that were so successful in Israel. The front of settlement in the world today is the land at our feet.