However, when we deeply observe this country, we will find that the real Israel is actually a modern country with rich economy, advanced technology and beautiful environment, and its technological level even exceeds that of Japan, Canadian, China, Indian and other countries.
Agricultural miracle in the desert
Since the Middle Ages, Jews have lived in Europe for hundreds of years and have been bullied for a long time. After Hitler came to power to conquer Europe, Nazi Germany carried out a crazy genocide policy against Jews all over Europe, which made Jews almost extinct.
From 65438 to 0948, with the support of the United Nations Security Council, the Jews established the State of Israel. After years of persecution and bullying, this country finally has its own land. However, this land is desolate and barren. At first glance, there is endless yellow sand everywhere, with almost no arable land and little water. The survival of Israelis has faced severe challenges from the beginning.
However, in the past few decades, the Israelis have quickly achieved self-sufficiency and variety of food, and created many agricultural miracles that surprised the world in this desert. For example, Israel is now the second largest flower exporter in the world after the Netherlands, and a large desert has long been turned into a fertile field full of flowers; It has won the reputation of "European fruit basket" and cultivated a wide variety of high-quality fruits and vegetables (such as the famous "desert red" tomato) with high and stable yield and no pollution, which can sell well in the markets with the highest quality standards such as the European Union and the United States. In addition, Israel has truly become a "land flowing with milk and honey". The average annual milk yield of a cow ranks first in the world (about 12 tons), and people consume more than 500 grams of honey every year, relying entirely on domestic production.
The contrast between Israel's extremely unfavorable natural conditions and its extremely developed modern agriculture may be the strongest among countries in the world. So, how did Israeli agriculture take off and rise?
Water-saving agriculture has reached the extreme.
Israel is located in an arid, hot and rainy area, and it is a real country where water is as expensive as oil. Therefore, Israelis have been working hard to open up water sources and develop water-saving agriculture.
In 1950s, the Israeli government began to implement a large-scale "South-to-North Water Diversion Project" to transport water from lake tiberias in the northeast to the arid and water-deficient southern desert. This is the most important project since the founding of Israel. It cost more than 654.38 billion dollars and was put into use in the early 1960s. By the 1980s, the water pipeline of "South-to-North Water Transfer Project" had extended about 300 kilometers from north to south, and at the same time radiated water supply pipelines, which were connected with local water supply networks to form a national unified water supply system. Thanks to the "North-South Water Transfer Project", Israel was able to develop irrigation in the southern desert hundreds of kilometers away from the water source, and a large area of barren land began to become an oasis.
Meanwhile, Israel has made a revolutionary breakthrough in water-saving agriculture. 1962, an Israeli farmer Smaha borras came across a plant in his garden growing well. The reason is that the water pipe used to water the flowers is only slightly damaged, and small drops of water keep oozing out, keeping the plants moist all the time. Borras suddenly thought that little water droplets seeped out bit by bit, which not only helped plants grow, but also reduced evaporation, and the irrigation effect was naturally good. If this "drip irrigation" method can be applied to the barren southern desert, it is likely to create an unexpected miracle. Therefore, borras conceived the general layout of irrigation and invented the most advanced water-saving irrigation method in the world-drip irrigation.
To put it simply, the drip irrigation system in borras is to lay water pipes in the soil at the roots of plants, open the eyes on the side of the pipes, and cooperate with microswitches, so that only water and fertilizer can slowly drip to the roots of crops, thus achieving the water-saving effect of "watering plants with water instead of watering soil with water". However, in order to make water and fertilizer drip evenly on every crop, drip irrigation needs to solve many technical problems, such as the materials of plastic pipes and emitters should not be blocked under the scorching sun and sandstorm, the laying of pipes should be exquisite, and the flow rate of water drops and the concentration of fertilizer should be reasonably controlled. However, the Israeli government has a good eye for gold and is willing to work hard to improve and popularize the dropper technology. So far, the drip irrigation technology in Israel has been updated to the sixth generation. If the dropper equipment is properly maintained, it can be used continuously for 20 years, and the computer intelligent control system has also been introduced into the whole drip irrigation system by Israeli scientists.
Facts have proved that the benefits brought by drip irrigation are amazing. After the popularization of drip irrigation technology in Israel, the cultivated land area increased from 1600 square kilometers to 4,400 square kilometers, and the irrigated area expanded from 300 square kilometers to 2,600 square kilometers. While the total amount of agricultural water in China has remained stable, the agricultural output has increased surprisingly by more than ten times compared with the period of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
High technology teaches you how to farm.
In addition to the rational use of water resources, Israelis attach great importance to the strategy of developing agriculture through science and technology. About half of the farmers in Israel have received college education or above, and the rest have received at least high school education, so they can quickly master new agricultural technologies. All aspects of agricultural production in Israel are supported by scientific and technological strength, intensive cultivation, high quality and high efficiency.
The first is farming technology. Israel attaches great importance to cultivating excellent crop varieties. With the support of superb biotechnology, the cultivation and production of new crop varieties in Israel are very active. Generally speaking, the life cycle of a new variety is 3 to 4 years, and then it will be replaced by another new variety, and it takes an average of 5 years for a new variety to develop and commercialize. So in Israel, before an agricultural product goes on the market, the research and development of another updated agricultural product has already begun.
Step by step, bringing forth the old and bringing forth the new have enabled Israel to cultivate many high-quality crops. For example, the tomatoes they cultivate have bright colors and long shelf life; Seedless watermelons can be planted separately according to customers' requirements, and the color can be controlled. Holstein cows are bred by genetic engineering, and their milk production ranks first in the world. New flower varieties benefit from bioengineering; The newly cultivated hybrid cotton not only has longer and stronger fibers, but also reduces the demand for water, and some varieties are naturally brown or green. In addition, Israel has cultivated all kinds of seeds that can resist diseases, improve quality and yield, and hardly need water in hot climate. Now, Israel exports seeds of various crops worth $30 million every year.
Followed by the production process. Israel's agricultural employees only account for about 4% of the national population, and its agricultural production has been largely automated and basically managed by computers, which is convenient for Israelis to introduce more amazing high-tech into agricultural production. Some of the advanced agricultural technologies are both magical and practical, which are quite representative. For example, in order to let farmers clearly see the best way and the right time to grow crops and feed poultry, Israel's AKOL Company developed the "Agricultural Cloud Technology" platform. Using "agricultural cloud technology", farmers need to install sensors on tree trunks, vines, crop fields and fish ponds, or attach them to cows, milking systems, feed storage tanks and other suitable equipment. Sensor data will record environmental information, such as temperature, humidity, number and activity of animals, plant and soil conditions, pest index in this area, etc. These data will then be analyzed and compared with the "ideal yield guidance", and then clear guidance will be sent to farmers. AKOL's projects have covered the territory of Israel and have been introduced by Europe, America and China.
Insecticide and high-tech storage
In order to deal with crop pests and avoid chemical pollution of pesticides, Israel has vigorously developed biological insecticidal technology. Some farms protect pumpkins, peppers, melons, tomatoes and other crops by deploying natural enemies of feed insects, whiteflies, mites and other pests. The natural enemies of these pests include small bugs, phytophagous mites (an omnivorous mite) and parasitic bees. Other farms kill pests by suppressing their reproduction. For example, agricultural scientists have developed a "love potion" to deal with the grape mealybug (a pest that destroys grapes). This potion extracts pheromones (not chemical pesticides) released by female mealybugs before mating. When female mealybugs are not ready to mate, farmers release this "love potion" and let the smell of pheromones spread all over the farmland. After smelling the pheromone, the male mealybug frantically searched for the female mealybug. The female mealybug has not yet entered the mating period, so the male mealybug will always look for the female mealybug, but he will never find it. In the end, the male mealybug can only die of exhaustion. Without male mealybugs, female mealybugs can't reproduce, which excludes the possibility of pest reproduction.
For the storage and sorting of agricultural products, the Israelis have also done a beautiful job. At the 20 15 Israel 19 International Agricultural Expo, Israel showed the latest scientific and technological achievements. In order to detect the internal defects of agricultural products and thoroughly understand the product quality. Eshet Eilon Company demonstrated a fruit sorter. The machine uses infrared technology to analyze the inside of fresh fruit, which can remove rotten fruit in time and prevent cross infection. This technology can classify dates, apples, mangoes and oranges. Compared with the traditional sampling inspection, the fruit sorter can inspect about 5 tons of fruit per hour, and every fruit will be inspected. Then, the sorter can also classify fruits according to sweetness, maturity and maturity time. In this way, Israeli fruit merchants can provide buyers with more comprehensive information. Scientists from Hebrew University in Israel have demonstrated a secret preservative that can delay the senescence of lettuce leaves and the loss of chlorophyll, and can be used to extend the shelf life of celery, spinach, cabbage, cabbage, broccoli and other vegetables. This solution has been patented in Israel and the United States and will soon be made into a sprayer for use in the agricultural products area of supermarkets.
Israel's in-depth research in various fields of agriculture and the deep involvement of high technology in agriculture are leading in the world. It is the perfect combination of these factors and high-quality manpower that helps Israel realize the agricultural miracle of "making the desert full of flowers".
The power behind innovation
Innovation affects the world.
Israel can "counterattack" to become a big agricultural country under harsh natural conditions, largely thanks to its strong scientific and technological innovation ability. So, how advanced is the technology of the Israelis? Let's look at some data. In 20 15, the per capita GDP of Israel reached 35,000 USD, ranking 23rd in the world, among which the contribution rate of science and technology to GDP exceeded 90% (in China, the contribution rate of science and technology to GDP was only about 40%); Israel has nearly 65,438+050 scientists and engineers per 65,438+00,000 people, which is the highest proportion in the world. Israelis read 64 books every year, ranking first in the world (China reads 4 books every year); On average, the number of papers published in international scientific journals per 6.5438 million people ranks first in the world; Israel has the largest number of innovative enterprises per capita in the world.
With such a strong scientific research strength, Israel's scientific and technological achievements have blossomed in an all-round way and have already quietly penetrated into the lives of ordinary people.
When you get up for breakfast every day, you may have been in close contact with Israeli scientific and technological achievements for the first time. The milk you drink is probably produced by the milking technology developed by Afimilk Company in Israel. Founded in 1977, Afikim is a global leader in the field of modern dairy farms and cattle management systems, and most dairy factories in the world have adopted its technology in milking. At work, as long as you use a computer, it is difficult to leave Israeli technology. The USB flash drive (flash memory technology) used all over the world today was invented by M-Systems Company in Israel. Whether you organize files, watch movies, listen to music or watch photos, you can't do without all kinds of compressed files. These compressed files are all related to an algorithm called "Lempel-Ziff-Welch coding", which was founded by Israeli scientists of Haifa Institute of Technology in 1978 and later improved by American scientists in 1984. The QQ chat software you use is also based on ICQ invented by Israel Mirabillis Company in 1996. ICQ means: I looked for you and was improved by Tencent. In addition, when you travel, you may use the "Google Waze" map software. This mobile application was developed by the Israelis, and was later acquired by Google at a high price of11million dollars. Now it is used in 190 countries. When you are injured, you can use Israeli bandages ... there are many similar examples, too numerous to mention.
So, why can Israel achieve such remarkable scientific and technological achievements?
Bad environment promotes scientific and technological innovation
As mentioned earlier, the harsh natural conditions prompted the Israelis to develop agricultural high technology. On the other hand, when Israel was just born, it was besieged by neighboring Arab countries, and the political environment was equally bad, forcing Israelis to develop top military industries and attach importance to the construction of the Israel Defense Forces. However, Israel is not as militaristic as the Soviet Union, but invests a high proportion of its limited resources in the research and development of military technology. Then the generals use technology to transform it into civilian use, and in the process, they cultivate young technical talents and potential high-tech entrepreneurs.
Facts have proved that Israel's unique policy of "building the country through military industry" determines the high-tech genes of Israel's innovative enterprises, and it is not difficult to find the shadow of military technology in many innovative technologies in Israel.
For example, the famous "Israeli bandage" (also known as initial protective emergency bandage) was invented in the Israeli army. This kind of bandage with built-in pressure device is different from ordinary bandage. Can quickly put pressure on the injured part, stop bleeding at the first time, and maximize the chance of survival. Today, it is not only used in military battlefields around the world, but also widely used in civil medicine. For another example, VR, the most popular virtual reality technology at present, has actually been used by the Israel Defense Forces for simulation training in the past few decades. It is mainly used for those projects that are very expensive or even dangerous in real systems. There is also a famous Given Imaging company, which invented a small capsule gastroscope, which is not only convenient and safe to operate, but also can greatly alleviate the pain of patients with gastrointestinal diseases when doing gastroscopy. Gabriel Yidan, the founder of this company, used to be a missile engineer of the Israel Defense Forces, specializing in the research and development of top photoelectric modules. With these components, the missile can "see" its target. After retiring, Yidan envisioned developing a pill-sized camera using the latest miniaturization technology in missiles, which can transmit images taken from inside the human body. Finally, he developed a medical capsule gastroscope and achieved commercial success.
At present, Israel has advanced technical level in military science and technology, electronics, communications, computer software, medical equipment, biotechnology engineering, agriculture, aviation and other fields. These fields are closely related to the problems of "military research" or "fighting against the harsh natural environment".
Leveraging the United States to Create "Silicon Valley in the Middle East"
Looking back on the history of Israel since the founding of the People's Republic of China, we can easily find that the relationship between Israel and the United States is very close. Many Jews here are imported from the United States, and they are inextricably linked with American political and business circles. Therefore, for a long time, the American government has given Israel considerable economic support and the latest technical support, and Jews in American high-tech enterprises have spared no effort to help Israel.
Most innovative enterprises in Israel have a strong international vision, and entrepreneurs have been considering how to invent new technologies to solve a wide range of problems around the world since the beginning of their business. Among them, the most representative new technologies are drip irrigation technology, seawater desalination technology, sewage treatment technology and solar energy technology-these are the "signature fields" that gather Israeli high technology, and their technologies and products can be recognized by the international market. Coupled with the support of the superpower, the United States, it is very convenient for Israeli enterprises to explore the international market.
In addition, the Israeli government has formulated various policies to promote scientific and technological innovation and is committed to making the country a "Silicon Valley in the Middle East". For example, Tel Aviv, the second largest city in Israel, holds some annual science and technology conferences every year. In Tel Aviv's Rothschild Street and hessel District, a large number of scientific and technological innovation companies have gathered. These companies are open to the public free of charge during the annual meeting of science and technology, showing many novel products, and investors can find their favorite projects at this time. The government has also given many support policies to entrepreneurs, such as 50% tax reduction for new companies. In addition, Israel has also launched a "business start-up visa" to facilitate people of insight from other parts of the world to set up innovative enterprises in Tel Aviv. With the efforts of the Israeli government, many world-renowned enterprises have established R&D bases in Israel, such as Hewlett-Packard, Intel, IBM, Motorola, Microsoft and Siemens. By working in foreign research bases, Israeli technicians have improved their technical level, and they are also accumulating their own entrepreneurial capital, which is why Israel can become a powerful country in science and technology.
Excellent cultural tradition and advanced education.
Finally, we have to admire the Jewish cultural tradition of attaching importance to wisdom and Suntech. In the book Entrepreneurial Country: Enlightenment from Israel's Economic Miracle, co-authored by American foreign policy expert Dan Seno and Israeli columnist Sol Singh, the author regards the excellent Jewish cultural tradition as the most important factor for Israel to become a powerful country in scientific and technological innovation.
These excellent cultural traditions include: (1) the tradition of being good at learning from others gradually formed by Jews in their wandering life for more than 2,000 years; Let the Jewish people closely unite, survive and revive the collective consciousness; The spirit of self-improvement that is most needed to build a country and create miracles under extremely difficult conditions and so on.
On the basis of the above cultural traditions, Israelis have further established a very successful education system. For example, Israelis do not believe in authority and do not cultivate "good children", but cultivate children with ideas and independent thinking. They think that children's ability to ask questions is more important than their ability to solve problems. In the middle school curriculum in Israel, teachers often ask students to design problems independently and provide solutions. After such basic education, it has become a habit for Israeli young people to challenge established things and get rid of the shackles of thinking rules. Israeli experts said: "In the past, Jewish mothers wanted their children to become lawyers, but now every mother wants her children to start their own businesses."
Israel pays special attention to the cultivation of college students' entrepreneurial innovation ability, supports universities to establish their own technology incubators and provide financial support, and also establishes commercialization centers for scientific research achievements in universities. Colleges and universities are also very active in the commercial field, selling or commercializing the technological achievements and knowledge patents developed by laboratories. In university education, Israeli universities attach importance to the combination of scientific and technological innovation with enterprise management, economy, law, literature, history and philosophy, showing comprehensive, systematic and comprehensive advantages. When a school takes a fancy to a project, it needs to organize interdisciplinary experts to conduct comprehensive investigation and evaluation. Of course, not all projects can be successful. For example, the failure rate of venture capital projects in Hebrew University is around 30%. However, Israeli universities not only have policies and measures to encourage innovation, but also have a cultural atmosphere of tolerance and failure, allowing teachers and students to try and make mistakes boldly. The understanding of Israeli educational circles is that innovation itself is accompanied by risks and setbacks, so it is necessary to advocate understanding the atmosphere of failure and be more tolerant of losers in order to make them make a breakthrough.
In addition to higher education, Israel also vigorously develops adult amateur education, promotes national innovation, and encourages adult students to take high-tech courses urgently needed for social development. With the continuous rise of high-tech start-ups in Israel, the high-tech industry creates thousands of jobs every year. Therefore, the government has opened up channels to teach the latest science and technology courses for older employees free of charge, so that they can fill the vacancies in high-tech posts. At present, there are endless examples of middle-aged and elderly people and retirees in Israel who have achieved innovative results, and lifelong learning has become a common practice. A steady stream of talents provides a steady stream of innovation power, thus ensuring the prosperity of the nation and the prosperity of the country to continue further.
This article comes from the new theory of big science and technology encyclopedia? 20 16 1 1 magazine article, welcome readers to pay attention to our micro-signal of big technology: hdkj 1997.