New drought-resistant wheat variety named after October 7 victim
Hamas terrorists murdered agronomist Yakov Inon and his wife Bilha at Moshav Netiv Ha'asara. He was a consultant to the Volcani Instiute, which developed the variety
The Agriculture Ministry’s research and development arm, the Volcani Institute, has developed a new variety of drought-resistant wheat and named it after field-crop expert Yakov (Ya’akobi) Inon, who was murdered during the October 7, 2023, attack.
Hamas terrorists killed Inon, 78, and his wife Bilha, 75, in their home on Moshav Netiv Ha’asara near the Gaza border.
The institute’s Roi Ben-David and his research team developed the early-maturing, high-yielding “Ya’akobi” strain to cope with climate change. It is resistant to drought and heatwaves and can thrive even in the harsh growing conditions of the Negev in southern Israel, either with or without irrigation. It is designed to avoid the unstable weather around Passover, ripening some three weeks before other similar varieties.
Rich in gluten and high-quality baking protein, it is suitable for both amateur and professional bakers.
Ben-David, who heads the institute’s winter cereal-breeding program (where plants are crossed naturally, and not genetically modified), told The Times of Israel that Inon was an experienced agronomist and expert in field crops who became an agricultural trainer and often gave advice to him and other Volcani researchers about trial crops planted at the institute’s 2,000 dunam (500-acre) research fields in central Rishon Lezion.
The Ya’akobi variety has already been harvested by farmers this year, with increased use envisaged for the next season.
The Inons’ house was completely burned down in the Hamas onslaught. While Yakov’s remains were identified a few weeks later, Bilha was officially considered a missing person until August 2024, when the military announced that “a complex examination and investigation procedure” had enabled them to confirm she too had been killed.
The couple requested in their will that their bodies be cremated and spread out over the grounds of Netiv Ha’asara because they did not want to take up land.