Netafim, which makes smart irrigation systems, recently sent a
representative to Iraq to meet with Agriculture Ministry officials,
in order to determine whether Netafim could assist in projects to
upgrade the quality of agriculture in the country.
Before to the first Gulf War, Iraq had more than 4,000 agricultural
villages. However, Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's policy called
for destruction of their agricultural infrastructure, and to force
their residents to move to the region's four biggest cities.
While the area of the ancient Fertile Crescent, lying at the
convergence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in southern Iraq, has
badly contracted in recent years, it is still considered prime
farming land. Netafim is interested in taking part in the $300
million program that has been earmarked for agricultural
rehabilitation.
The concept of drip irrigation has been well known for decades. After
WWII plastics technology took off rapidly and drip irrigation became
economically practical. The first such work was with micro-tubes and
took place in England and France in greenhouses. About 1960, a
Mr.Symcha Blass an employee of a British Water Agency, emigrated to
Israel.. There is a "fable" (which could be true, because it came
from his own mouth) about Symcha Blass sitting next to a tree which
was near a leaking faucet and Eureka! But there is also no doubt that
he knew about the British greenhouse application of micro-tubes. With
the desperate water shortage in Israel he decided that this
technology would be useful for growing crops in the field as well as
in greenhouses. The microtube was first wrapped around the feeding
tube to keep it out of the way to prevent damage. This was followed
by a molded coupling with the spiral molded in. In turn this
developed into the ubiquitous two piece in-line dripper described in
Blass' patent. Blass did his work at Kibbutz Hatzerim and formed the
basis of the Netafim, irrigation enterprise.
