Israel’s Agricultural Research Organization (ARO) and Japan’s National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) have been joint research partners in the theme of “water use” since 2017.
March 26th afternoon —a symposium including the mid-term report of the joint research was held and four of joint research members from ARO’s Soil, Water and Environmental Science Unit and the Director for Academic Affairs and International Collaboration participated.
(Venue: Tsukuba Center for Institutes)
Dr. Yoshiteru Sakata, Director-General of the Institute Vegetable and Floriculture Science, NARO, and Mr. Arieh Rosen, Culture & Science Affairs Attaché of the Embassy of Israel opened the symposium. Mr. Rosen said, “Israel is a more of a startup nation; and Japan a monozukuri-nation…Israel is 60% desert; Japan is 67% forest …we complement each other because of our differences, and in our similarities has forged a firm bond of partnership.”
“We ARO welcome postdocs from Japan”, said Prof. Altstein, Director of Academic Affairs and International Collaboration, ARO.
A lot of attention has been on Israel as a startup nation in recent years mainly in high tech industries such as IT and pharma.
According to Prof. Altstein, pre-seed money for industry-academia collaboration in agricultural technology used to be mainly accessible by industry, but, that shifted to universities and research institutes about 15 years ago. Following major academic institutions in the country - Weizmann, Technion and Hebrew University – in shifting their focus on agricultural technology research, the Government changed its policy change, which became a turning point energizing Agritech startups.
Keynote speakers were two companies from Japan’s agrotech industry. Ms. Smith (Masumitsu), President and CEO of Sun Hope, and Mr. Tagawa of Netafim Japan. Sun Hope has been importing Israel’s irrigation technology for more than 40 years and Netafim is best known for their drip irrigation system. Ms. Smith shared about different communication flows that connect researchers and farmers in Israel as well as Japan’s academia-industry project that they are taking part. Mr. Tagawa shared about Netafim’s ongoing efforts in introducing their drip irrigation system that aligns with Japan’s largely different environment as well as their new system that utilizes AI, called “NetBeat”.
ARO has KIDUM, a tech transfer section for implementation of developed technologies.
We eagerly await just how the joint research results with NARO are going to be implemented in near future.
◎NARO-ARO Joint research themes, selected in MAFF’s international joint research pilot program under the strategic international joint research program for FY2017:
- "Development of water-saving irrigation system using reclaimed water"
- "Study on treatment, utilization, and influence in agricultural use of reclaimed water with different water quality"
- "Identification of risks from harmful microorganisms associated with agricultural use of rural village wastewater treatment"
- "Improvement of water use efficiency in vegetable cultivation corresponding to reclaimed water utilizing ground and underground irrigation"
For more info on the joint call ↓
◎ARO websites:
・ARO Volcani Center
・Kidum - R&D Applications and Technology Transfer
◎SAVE THE DATE！for the Agritech conference 『AGRISRAEL4.0』 in Israel (June 24-27)
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Photos： 農研機構 （NARO）
Arieh Rosen, Culture & Science Affairs Attaché of the Embassy of Israel, speaking at the symposium.