Ministry warns of agriculture crisis as desalination plants shut again

The Agriculture Ministry warns that the unprecedented shutdown of Israel’s desalination plants has triggered a severe agricultural water crisis, threatening food production continuity and crop survival, particularly in the south.

Following an emergency assessment led by Ministry Director General Oren Lavi, officials mapped critical shortages concentrated in the Ramat Negev and Nitzana areas, where extensive vegetable fields, greenhouses, and young seedlings need continuous irrigation.

With water cutoffs risking irreversible damage to sensitive crops and livestock, the ministry is coordinating directly with the Water Authority and Mekorot to prioritize emergency supplies and is deploying water tankers to affected dairy farms in places such as Kibbutz Gezer and Moshav Matzliah in central Israel as a temporary stopgap.

Warning that prolonged shortages could disrupt fresh produce supplies ahead of the upcoming religious holidays, the ministry stresses that these emergency measures cannot replace regular infrastructure supply and vows to maintain intensive monitoring to prevent permanent harm to Israel’s agricultural sector and food security.