Research and Development in Action 

Stops Along the Way on the Journey from Field to Fork

 

As part of the efforts to introduce BARD's work to governmental stakeholders the BARD team went to visit companies that have implemented BARD funded research outputs. They  were joined by two representatives from the budgets department at the Israeli Ministry of Finance Mr. Gilad Katzav, who is a member of the BARD board of directors and Mr. Eli Morgenstern, who serves as the water, agriculture and ports coordinator at the Ministry of Finance. At each company they met with BARD-funded scientists who shared their knowledge and insights on the market implementations of their research work.

First stop was Ambar, the largest livestock feed supplier in Israel. The team got to learn about the Israeli feed market and developments in the livestock feeding industry in Israel. Dr. Talpaz, who conducted research together with the late Prof. Shmuel Hurwitz at ARO in the 1980's talked about analysis of bird growth between restricted and unrestricted feeding protocols. This research brought to the development of an algorithm and a mathematical model and its incorporation into a computer software package.  The model is used to support smallholder farmers worldwide, increasing access to protein-rich food in the developing world.

Next the team visited the vegetable breeding company BreedX. This young company seeks to collaborate with large grower cooperatives and retailers who wish to own elite exclusive varieties and to create competitive advantages of high-value vegetables in the global markets. Mr. Moshe Bar, the company CEO, talked about how the ever-growing consumer demand for improved quality of the fresh market tomato has led researchers to improve fruit taste by exploring new genetic resources. Dr. Arthur Schaffer from Agricultural research center (ARO), who conducted several BARD-funded research projects in tomato breeding, talked about the BARD B-Lever project for breeding taste back into tomatoes.  "The breeding was done using wild tomato which are themselves inedible but include genes of pigment and aroma that can enhance the taste of a tomato. By studying the genetic variability among these wild tomatoes, the researchers have found germplasm that controls the taste, appearance and nutritional components of tomatoes. By using these genetic resources, they were able to manipulate both fruit pigmentation and aromatic volatiles in domestic tomatoes, impacting their taste, appearance, and nutritional composition".

Last stop was at Aquatech Fisheries, a land-based fish-farming company. Mr. Mordi Lalush told the story of the fish farm, how it was built and how it runs. He detailed the challenges Israeli aquaculture faces in planning, developing, and managing aquaculture facilities and how innovation can help overcome them. The facility was planned and built in consultation with many experts, including BARD-funded scientists Dr. Amit Gross from BGU and Prof. Yonatan Zohar from the University of Maryland. Prof. Sheenan Harpaz (ARO) gave the background on fish breeding and the extensive research done to enable optimum temperature, correct salinity conditions and all the different parameters to ensure the best controlled environment for farmed fish.