The Department of the Interior and Local Government is collaborating with an Israeli agricultural center on providing intensive training and education to select local agriculture students on modern food-security solutions.

Agrostudies, an international training center that provides a program for agricultural education to interns from developing countries around the world, will transfer the technology and best practices to Filipino farmers.

The DILG, in itself, has local agriculture programs, think Hapag, which complements the national government’s food-security measures; and the Kadiwa ng Pangulo, which provides access to quality and safe food items at affordable prices.

The department collaborates with local governments in the selection of eligible students to participate in the 11-month program in Israel, focusing on various aspects of agriculture, including crop cultivation, livestock management and agricultural technology.

The Philippines is the first partner-country of Israel over the last 20 years, with some 8,000 Filipinos as scholars, the largest number of participants among 15 partner-countries in the internship program.

The purpose is for the students and farmers to learn modern technologies in Israel and engage in businesses in the Philippines.

Ambassador Ilan Fluss said the milestone signifies a new beginning, new opportunity, new collaboration of bringing modern technologies and agriculture practices to the country.

World leader in agriculture innovation

Israel is a world leader in automating growing crops and raising livestock.

The country has long been extending that expertise to Filipino farmers.

The idea is to narrow the Filipino farmers’ chances of failure by making extensive use of Israel’s experience in agriculture and introduce that expertise to Philippine farms.

“The Israeli approach to agriculture is very different. It is about the scientific approach in Israel. The farmers work very closely with the government, the research community and the private sector, which is developing new technologies and systems,” Fluss said.

Filipino farmer-interns in Israel sit in various classes with Israeli farmers, or walk though farms and agricultural companies, where Israel’s best practices disabuse them of hard work with little returns.

Among the innovations they see: A remote-controlled irrigation system that doubles as fertilizer and considerably cuts visits to the fields. A smart drip system that goes directly to the roots to save water and emancipate planters from seasonal rains. A system that keeps tabs on precise growing conditions in indoor vegetable gardens.

One of the internship graduates has been able to scale up her mushroom enterprise.