An old proverb states that necessity is the mother of invention – and there’s no clearer illustration of that reality than Israel’s vibrant agriculture technology sector.
With the Negev Desert accounting for a majority of its landmass, and lacking diplomatic or commercial ties with its neighbors, this small country started with big dreams of making the desert bloom through homegrown ingenuity and common effort – and that’s precisely what Israel has done, pioneering technologies from drip irrigation to precision agriculture.
That track record has enabled Israel to vault to global leadership in agtech. And as farmers worldwide seek to reap the benefits of big data, artificial intelligence, smart irrigation, and the Internet of Things, Israel’s agtech sector is attracting major investment. A joint report from AgFunder and Start-Up Nation Central finds that Israeli agrifood startups secured $759 million in funding across 278 deals from 2014 to 2018, and with more than 700 active startups, there’s no shortage of innovative activity in the sector.
Here’s a look at a few of the companies continuing Israel’s longstanding tradition of working at the cutting edge of agriculture:
Amid significant global population growth and the challenges of climate change, resource management, and food supply, companies like these will be vital to the future of farming. While the global agriculture industry has long been seen as a laggard in adopting in innovation, that hasn’t been the case in Israel, where agricultural innovation has been a central theme of the country’s founding and subsequent success.
For more information you can directly approach our office at: bucharest@israeltrade.gov.il