Located at the Volcani Center campus in Bet-Dagan, near Tel-Aviv, ARO's six institutes are responsible for Plant Sciences, Animal Science, Plant Protection, Soil, Water and Environmental Sciences, Agricultural Engineering, and Postharvest and Food Sciences. ARO also operates four research stations, in various parts of the country, and serves as a testing center for agricultural produce and equipment. Israel's Gene Bank for Agricultural Crops is also located on the ARO Volcani Center campus.
While encompassing the full range of agricultural research activities, ARO focuses in particular on arid zone agriculture, enabling Israel - a country short of all the resources required for agriculture - to achieve among the highest levels of agricultural output in the world.
The
World Food Preservation Center, LLC, is a unique coalition of ten research universities on six continents who are working to build sustainable techniques to combat food loss, particularly in emerging economies. The universities who participate will also recruit graduate students from the developing world and provide them opportunities for a world-class education in the postharvest preservation of food. As much as half of harvested food in low-income countries is lost before being consumed, and yet the vast majority of agricultural research money continues to be spent on food production. The World Food Preservation Center's participating institutions seek to correct that imbalance, guided by the belief that preventing food insecurity can also prevent future political instability and violence.
The World Food Preservation Center's "sister" universities and ARO will pioneer low-cost, sustainable, and regionally-adapted techniques of food preservation, such as solar refrigeration, biological control, and active and intelligent packaging. The institutions will actively recruit students from developing countries who wish to return home after receiving an M.S. or Ph.D. degree to establish independent research, education and extension programs in their native countries - or to further the cause of postharvest food preservation in government or in industry there.
"We see the partnership of the WFPC with ARO in Israel as a major step forward in our mission of educating young scientists from developing countries in the latest technologies for the postharvest preservation of food," said Dr. Charles Wilson, Founder/Chairman & CEO of the World Food Preservation Center, LLC.
"The World Food Preservation Center, LLC, is very fortunate to have the ARO Volcani Center in Israel as a partner as we attack one of the most intractable problems of our time - world hunger. Current projections suggest that even with improved crop yields, we will not be able to meet the world's demand for food by 2050. The postharvest expertise and educational capability of the ARO Volcani Center will be invaluable as we work to confront this challenge," said Dr. Wilson. "ARO is well-positioned to provide a world-class education to young postharvest students/scientists in developing countries who are familiar with the postharvest food losses in their countries and eager to reduce them. Their work will continue generationally."
"We feel that the ARO will become a worthy contributor to the programs of the World Food Preservation Center, LLC, particularly through our expertise in the Postharvest and Food Science Institute," said Dr. Ada Rafaeli, ARO Associate Director for Academic and Affairs and International Cooperation. "ARO hosts over 300 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows through collaborations with most of the universities in Israel. We represent the research arm of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Israel, covering over 70% of research endeavors in Israeli agricultural research, and we are recognized at the forefront of scientific and technological development."