Where is the desert agriculture in China?

Extended reading:

Israel is located in the southeast of the Mediterranean, bordering Lebanon in the north, Syria and Jordan in the east and Egypt in the southwest. The total land area is about 25,000 square kilometers, much smaller than that of Ningxia Autonomous Region (66,000 square kilometers), which is equivalent to the total area of Beijing (6,543,800+7,000). Looking at this long and narrow country from north to south on the map, the narrowest place from east to west is only 150 km-less than 1 hour by car. The total population is about 810.3 million, and the population density is equivalent to that of Beijing. Israel is also a resource-poor country, about 60% of its territory is covered by desert, and the overall soil quality is sandy. How is such a country with poor resources but a large population famous for its high-tech industry?

On the way out of the airport to Tel Aviv, the second largest city in Israel, I thought I would see a high-tech city built in the desert, but it is actually a warm seaport city like Miami and Los Angeles. Tel Aviv has a typical Mediterranean climate with high humidity, and the average annual rainfall is about 530mm. Tel Aviv has an average of more than 300 sunny days every year. Spring and autumn are relatively short, and the climate changes quite rapidly. 65438+Since mid-February, the weather has been basically maintained at 15-20℃, with sunshine and occasional rainfall, which is a very pleasant season.

Tel Aviv on the Mediterranean coast?

A lush city?

A lemon tree full of fruits

Ubiquitous drip irrigation system (1)

Ubiquitous drip irrigation system (2)

Scenery on both sides of the highway

The sandy land on both sides of the road is covered with tall palm trees, green plants, fruit trees full of fruits and gorgeous flowers. This is inseparable from the criss-crossing pipelines covered on the ground-the water and fertilizer integrated drip irrigation system independently developed by Israel, in which water mixed with chemical fertilizers and pesticides automatically seeps into the roots of plants through plastic pipes by computers. This high-tech system saves 50~70% unnecessary water evaporation, making this water-deficient country built on the desert become a piece of green. These are inseparable from Israel's advanced agricultural science and technology, high-quality professional farmers, and Israel's "ignorant spirit."

Drip irrigation technology of water and fertilizer integration turns desert into oasis

Naitefim (? Netafim) company

Israel Natafim company was established in 1965, which is a company providing professional drip irrigation and micro-irrigation solutions for customers. In fact, drip irrigation technology has existed for a long time, but Natafim is the first company to innovate in the commercial field, accounting for one-third of the global drip irrigation equipment market. Natafim has made such outstanding achievements because it has invested a lot of money in R&D and product improvement, and successfully developed a set of modern electronic control products-sensor components for precise watering according to data such as humidity, temperature, fertility and illumination. The sensor module transmits the collected data to the system, and the system will carry out accurate drip irrigation according to the analyzed results.

Naty Barak, Director of Sustainable Development (left), Rachel Shaul, Director of External Marketing (middle) and Yoav Zeif, Director of Product and Marketing (right).

"Traditional irrigation is like washing the whole land, resulting in 85% evaporation and waste of water and fertilizer." Naty Barak, director of the sustainable development department of Natafim, told us, "We don't have much resources, so we have to bargain for it."

Then we went to a farmland in Hojoba, where Netafim underground drip irrigation technology was used. The harsh soil environment with high salinity did not stop the wisdom of the Israelis. This plant, which is native to Mexico, has an annual output even higher than that of Mexico through precise drip irrigation.

Sand filled with air?

Jojoba farm?

Natafim's drip irrigation technology has high technology content. The main characteristics of this underground drip irrigation are as follows: First, multi-stage turbocharging effectively controls the cleanliness of the drip irrigation mouth. The second is to bury drip irrigation equipment according to the growth characteristics and soil quality of crops. This not only saves water resources, but also does not affect field farming. Third, solve the problem of soil salinization. In order to prevent plants from anaerobic respiration, the pipeline will be laid 20-35 cm away from the plants. Yoav Zeif, director of product and marketing, said, "The purpose of drip irrigation is to ensure that crops get the nutrients they need, not to wet the soil."

Farmer Oscar is showing the sensor probe buried in the ground?

This kind of sensing tissue, like Chinese alpine rush, can detect the environment of crops, including temperature, humidity, nutrients and other data.

The data will be sent to the terminal system through the blue transmitter.

The data collected by the sensor will be transmitted to the computer system or mobile phone application through this blue signal transmitter, and then Oscar will adjust the temperature, irrigation and fertilizer according to these data.

Oscar is showing how to check the data with the drip irrigation application on the mobile phone.

This not only improves the output, but also saves human resources. Jojoba fields of this size need only a few people to take care of them. "This software saves me too much energy," Oscar said. "I just need to turn on my mobile phone or open my email, so I can know about my farm anytime and anywhere."

Jojoba seed

Oscar also revealed to us that Jojoba is planted not only because it adapts to the arid desert climate, but also because it has considerable economic benefits. Jojoba oil extracted from its seeds has excellent cosmetic effect, is rich in vitamin D and protein, is a good moisturizing oil, can keep skin moisture, prevent wrinkles and soften skin, and is one of the most popular cosmetic raw materials. After repeated extraction and ethane treatment, crude oil can also be used for industrial purposes.

The Israelis planted an "oasis" in the desert through drip irrigation technology. Surprisingly, however, the irrigation water for this farm comes from domestic and industrial wastewater, not natural water.

The infinite possibilities of water.

The narrow geographical environment leads to uneven rainfall in Israel, and the rainfall between north and south is very different. The annual rainfall affected by Mediterranean water vapor in the north is about 900 mm, while the annual rainfall affected by Sinai desert in the south is only about 50 mm. The Israeli government has implemented the South-to-North Water Transfer Project, which has alleviated the water shortage problem to some extent. In addition, the government has invested a lot of money in the construction of wastewater recycling. At present, the wastewater treatment rate in Israel is as high as 75%, ranking first in the world.

Shafudan Wastewater Treatment Plant is located about 10 km south of Tel Aviv. It is one of the largest wastewater treatment plants in the world, with a daily wastewater treatment capacity of about 370,000 tons. It undertakes the task of domestic and industrial wastewater treatment for nearly 2.5 million people in this area. Shafudan adopts the latest biological sewage treatment technology-using a device called "bioreactor" to provide growth space for bacteria and use them to consume biological waste. Treated reclaimed water is introduced into dozens of reservoirs distributed in the southern Negev desert through designated water pipelines for agricultural irrigation.

Shafudan spokesperson Meier Bennoun?

"Although the treated water is not up to the drinking standard, it is enough for agricultural irrigation," said Meir Ben-Noon, a spokesman for Shafudan. In his view, the difference between this new technology and traditional wastewater treatment is that it occupies less land, saves manpower and does not pollute the environment. Standing by the pool for wastewater treatment, I didn't smell the pungent smell that the sewage treatment plant should have.

The wastewater in the pool is tumbling, and the flowers and plants outside the pool are flourishing.

Perhaps it is the natural lack of water resources that makes Israelis look forward to everything. In addition to the recycling of wastewater, Shafudan also implements underground recharge of reclaimed water to increase the water resources reserve, that is, the natural seepage river bed is used for sewage recharge. This can not only reduce sewage discharge, but also increase water resources reserve, and solve the problem of water shortage for future generations to the greatest extent.