Israel · Arava and Negev
Israel’s water
A desert where vegetables and dates grow: drip irrigation, recycled water and greenhouses. Every drop works twice — first in the city, then in the field.
Numbers
- About 90% of treated wastewater goes to agriculture (2023).
- Drip irrigation gets ≈90% of the water to the roots, versus ≈60% with furrow irrigation (FAO).
- Tomato yields: 66.6 t/ha, almost twice the world average (FAOSTAT, 2024).
- Water saved on a field often goes into expanding irrigation: savings are counted across the whole basin (Science, 2018).
Sources (5)
What to learn
Garden
Drip under mulch and a rain barrel: the Israeli approach at the scale of a 600 m² plot.
Farm
A water meter on every plot: savings show up only where they are measured.
Agribusiness
Recycled and treated water plus fertigation: water and fertilizer as one system.
Video
A video search on third-party platforms — it opens in a new tab.
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×13tomato yield vs. the world average
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Almeria’s sea of greenhouses
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Russia’s grain
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