With the right technology, the country can turn its farm sector into a main growth driver, the Israeli ambassador to the Philippines said on Thursday.
Speaking during the Israel Greenhouse Technology forum, Ambassador Effie Ben Matityau said his country has a comparatively small land area but it has a developed and sustainable agriculture mainly because of its reliance on technology.
In 1948, Matityau said, Israel started to export 500 million pieces of oranges annually, and after almost six decades, the country can still export the same volume without additional arable land.
“Agriculture sometimes is a liability, but at the same time, a provider of hope. The apparent contradiction is because of the high employment it provides, but sometimes, produces a very limited share in a country’s gross domestic product [GDP],” he said.
“This should not be the case because based on [Israel’s] experience, agriculture is highly lucrative,” Matityau added.
He said the Philippines has all the conditions to develop its agriculture as a main growth driver and that it is presented with many opportunities such as tie-ups with other countries which are willing to provide assistance to the country.
Matityau said Israel and the Philippines have a long-standing relation in agriculture. He said the new system being used in strawberry farms in Baguio City is very similar to what they are doing in Israel, adding that he would not be surprised if those behind its origin are products of an agriculture cooperation between the two countries.
Mashav, Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation, has worked with several universities in northern Philippines via its education program. Under Mashav, some 3,000 Filipinos have already been given scholarship on agricultural courses. The program also provides courses on community development, medicine and public health, environment, science and technology, education and women empowerment.
The education program, which is now on its eighth year, has sent hundreds of Filipino professionals to Israel to train in multiple agricultural methodologies and trained hundreds more here in the Philippines.
According to Israel’s embassy, more than 100 Filipinos, comprised of farmers and Department of Agrarian Reform officials, have been trained in Israel on special courses regarding vegetable production and post-harvest technologies, including 1 billion assorted genetically engineered high-quality seeds donated to the participating provinces.