Two chief ministers of the NDA camp, Parkash Singh Badal of Punjab and Prem Kumar Dhumal of Himachal Pradesh, want to engage with Israel for its water management-related technologies. Both Badal and Dhumal are currently visiting Israel to get first-hand knowledge about agricultural irrigation technologies on display at the International Water Technologies and Environmental Control Exhibition in Israel. Both have taken high-level teams of officials from their respective states with them and are likely to hold deliberations with concerned Israeli ministers to explore the possibilities of further collaboration in the field of water management technology.

With Punjab being one of the largest foodgrain producers in the country and Himachal Pradesh being a large producer of horticulture produce, the visit by these two CMs holds significance as large-scale drought this year has underlined the need for improving agricultural water use in the country.

With over three-fourth of water usage in the country accounted for by the agriculture sector, where the water use efficiency is only 40 per cent for surface irrigation and 60 per cent for groundwater irrigation, Israeli technology and practice holds importance for various parts of the country.

With irrigation limited to only 40 per cent of the cropped area in the country and the remaining area being rainfed, Israel, which has developed cost-effective irrigation and water recycling technologies, offers an important area of collaboration with the agriculture sector here. In fact, several Israeli irrigation technology firms have opened their shops here to sell their technology.

Israeli experts have also been in touch with several state governments, including Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and Himachal, to collaborate in the field of efficient water use in agriculture.

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