Haryana to Tamil Nadu: Indo-Israel ties for a better future

Israeli technologies for farming, water treatment to bring in a silent revolution

Narendra Modi became the first Indian prime minister to visit Israel when he landed in Tel Aviv on Sunday. Besides the warm welcome, also on display was the camaraderie between Modi and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu. And a slew of deals were signed. Coinciding with the historic visit of the PM, Business Standard looked at some of the joint initiatives of the two countries across India and their impact.

Israelis have long been known for changing their agricultural landscape with drip-irrigation technology. Back home technology imports from Israel have made lives easier for Indians.

Take the case of Avatar Singh, a 42-year-old farmer from Kaithal district in Haryana. Four years ago, he was passing through Gurgaon when he first saw a massive polyhouse in the fields. Relatives guided him to the Centre of Excellence for Vegetables, an Indo-Israeli project set up in 2010-11 in Karnal, some 100 km from Delhi.
 

There, he was introduced to protected cultivation technology (where the climate around the plant is controlled), low-cost drip irrigation systems and disease-free seedlings. He was also trained in growing off-season vegetables for three days. “After training, I set up a polyhouse in my fields and my yields for cucumber and capsicum have gone up fourfold. My income, too, has quadrupled,” said Singh, who was at the Centre on Tuesday for seedlings.

The Centre in Karnal was part of the Action Plan 2008-2010, between India and Israel. The plan focused on setting up centres of excellence in Haryana, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Gujarat. In 2013, another Indo-Israel Centre of Excellence for subtropical fruits was set up in Sirsa, Karnal’s neighbouring district. 

Some 2,300 km away, another technology import from Israel is bringing much-needed reprieve to the parched residents of Chennai. The seawater desalination plant at Nemmeli, spread across over 20 acres between the East Coast Road and the sea, has become a major source of drinking water for the Tamil Nadu capital. The plant, built by Israel’s IDE Technologies and VA Tech Wabag, has been supplying 100 million litres of water daily since it became operational in 2013.

The plant converts seawater into fresh potable water using reverse-osmosis technology and caters to one million people from the southern suburbs of Chennai. The Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board claims the plant built at a cost of Rs 800 crore with assistance from the central and state governments, is one of the largest in India.

Back in Karnal, Deputy Director of Horticulture Deepak Kumar Dhattarwal said as many as 15,000 farmers had been trained since the Centre opened. “Farmers are switching to horticulture mainly because of profitability over traditional crop such as wheat and paddy. The other factor is soil erosion, shrinking land size and depleting groundwater,” he said.

Statistics from Haryana government suggest of the total geographical area of 4.42 million hectares, about 50 per cent of the area was severely affected by soil erosion, alkalinity, salinity and waterlogging. And, 10 of 22 districts had been placed in dark zone for over-exploitation of water.

Despite the advantages of Israeli technology and increased profitability, horticulture in Haryana isn’t growing at a fast pace. Farmers and experts said this was mainly because of the high investment needed and the risks involved with it. A polyhouse can be set up on one acre of land for around Rs 30 lakh, of which 65 per cent is subsidised by the Haryana government.

“Still, a farmer has to arrange for Rs 10-12 lakh. The borrowing limit on the Kisan Credit Card is up to Rs 3 lakh. So the farmers have to depend on moneylenders and banks,” Singh said. “If the crop fails, which is the case with 50 per cent farmers who tried to copy the technology without training, the farmer has to bear huge interest cost and high input cost. Then there is a recurring cost of Rs 3 lakh on changing the polythene every three years.”

Jalgaon-based Jain Irrigation Systems, a few hours by road from Mumbai, is yet another facility showcasing Indo-Israel partnership. In fact, the largest micro-irrigation firm in the country plans to grow its wholly-owned Israeli subsidiary NaanDan Jain by 20 per cent every year, both organically and inorganically. NaanDan will focus on precision agriculture, integrated community irrigation and also plans to explore renewable and solar power. 

“While knowledge is a shared commodity worldwide, Israel brings practical experience and application to the table. We are focusing on Israel as a country for its value-added agriculture that minimises wastage of resources like water, land as well as fertilisers and produces maximum high-quality product,” said Jain Irrigation Managing Director Anil Jain.

The company will continue to bring technology from Israel, which focuses on precision agriculture which can help farmers fight climate change. Precision agriculture uses modern technology such as internet, global positioning systems and satellites and helps farmers make optimum decisions. 

Israel is futuristic when it comes to water conservation and on-demand irrigation, a feature unique to the country, according to Jain.