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Manna From Israel's Negev Desert
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15330 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
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8 / 1989 |
3,003 Words |
| Author
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Nechemia Meyers
Nechemia Meyers, affiliated with the Weizmann Institute of
Science in Rehovot, Israel, has previously published two
articles in The World & I: Israel and the Far East: Growing
Links Between Jews and Asians (January 1989) and Bar Kokhba: A
Two-Millennia Debate (July 1990). |
One-third of the earth's land surfaces and two-thirds of Israel are desert, but few research centers concentrate on the problems of such areas. Of those that do, one of the most important--and certainly the most comprehensive--is the Jacob Blaustein Institute of Desert Research, established in 1975 as part of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
The Blaustein Institute is linked to David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, not only through the university tht bears his name, but also by virtue of its location in Sde Boqer. That is the desert outpost where Ben-Gurion retired on relinquishing the premiership--temporarily in 1953 and then permanently in 1963--and where, in 1973, he was buried.
Ben-Gurion firmly believed that Israel's future, indeed her very survival, depended on the development of the Negev Desert. "If the State does not put an end to the desert," he declared, "the desert may put an end to the State." The Blaustein Institute's 65 researchers share Ben-Gurion's devotion to the Negev, but not his philosophy. Their aim is not to eliminate the desert but to live with it in ecological harmony. In pursuit of that goal, Blaustein scientists study all aspects of the desert, starting with its most serious problem; namely, a lack of water. One method of coping with water shortages now under evaluation, runoff agriculture, is by no means new. It was introduced by the ancient Israelites 3,000 years ago and improved by the Nabataeans some 1,500 years later. Experimental farms based on this method have been established at three Negev sites, including one near the ancient, partially preserved Nabataean city of Avdat. At these farms, in an area where annual rainfall averages less than four inches, one finds flourishing
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