Dear Friends,
This project aims to fight against bad herbs that are usually growing together with the wheat fields. The bad herbs reduce the wheat yield every year. Therefore, farmers use chemical sprays to kill the seeds before planting wheat for the next year. There is no necessity to explain the damage that chemical spraying causes to the fields and to the underground water. There is no need to explain the cost of the chemical sprays. The European Union decided that by the year 2030, there will be a regulation that will prohibit the use of chemical sprays in wheat fields.
I am not sure that the European farmers will be able to grow wheat by organic systems. The cost of organic systems is much higher and I am sure that the European Union will need to subsidize the prices for the farmers.
In Israel, there is no option to subsidize the agriculture. The project that ICA granted 3 years ago developed and improved a version of an Australian machine that can crush the seeds of the bad herbs and the result will be reduction in the volume of the bad herbs. Today, I visited the wheat fields in the Gaza Envelop and I was surprised at the excellent results of using the crushing machine.
One more note – the students of the Masters Degree graduated in the past from the best high school in Israel – Eshel Hanassi. So, I am twice as happy !!
Attached are a few photos and you can see the signage of ICA on the big agricultural combine.
Ze’ev
