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Israeli agriculture

For illustration: A farmer harvests wheat in the Hula Valley, northern Israel, May 17, 2023. (Ayal Margolin/Flash90)
December 4, 2025, 10:34 pm
Israel and US sign agriculture trade agreement to clinch concessions on Trump tariffs
From January, Israel will lift remaining duties on US agricultural goods, amid wider discussions with Trump administration to ease tariffs on exports, remove trade barriers
By Sharon Wrobel
A field of pomegranate trees in Moshav Kfar Achim, south-central Israel, September 8, 2019. (Mila Aviv/Flash90)
September 23, 2025, 9:21 am
Why pomegranates, a Rosh Hashanah staple, are disappearing from Israeli farms
Loved by King Solomon, the fruit is valued for its beauty and health benefits. But farmers of this ruby-red member of the Seven Species complain that growing it is overly expensive
By Sue Surkes
Levav Weinberg, a farmer in Metula, stands in his apple orchard with a view of the border with Lebanon and Kafr Kila, once a Hezbollah stronghold, in the background, on September 18, 2025. (Diana Bletter/Times of Israel)
September 22, 2025, 2:00 pm
In war-ravaged northern Israel, farmers replant apple trees hoping for sweeter years ahead
With some 99,000 acres of farmland in the north destroyed during the Hezbollah conflict, growers face a bittersweet return as they judge whether to save orchards or start from scratch
By Diana Bletter
Irrigating fields near the Gaza border in southern Israel, December 19, 2024. (Moshe Shai/FLASH90)
April 3, 2025, 9:13 am
Government amends Water Law to cut price for farmers
Agriculture Ministry, kibbutz and moshav movements, farmers’ federation, welcome move, which emphasizes speeding up the transition to using treated wastewater
By Sue Surkes
Leket Israel volunteers gather near the Gaza border to help farmers, on March 11, 2024. (Leket Israel)
July 30, 2024, 6:37 am
Food waste cost economy NIS 1 billion during first six months of war — study
Lack of access and reduction in farmhands caused shortages that saw vegetables prices rise 18% and fruit prices 12%, says paper calling for more support for local growers
By Sue Surkes
A street in the Christian quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, usually lined with restaurants and shops, sits empty amid Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza and the halt to international tourism to the city, December 14, 2023. (Gianluca Pacchiani/Times of Israel)
July 18, 2024, 8:40 pm
Up to 60,000 Israeli businesses may close in 2024 as war takes toll on economy
CofaceBDI says 46,000 businesses have shut down since Hamas invasion and slaughter on Oct. 7 amid ongoing war; construction, agriculture and services sectors are hit hardest
By Sharon Wrobel
Palestinian workers stand in line at the Erez crossing to Israel, September 28, 2023. (Atia Mohammed/Flash90)
March 24, 2024, 8:05 pm
Despite ostensible ban, tens of thousands of Palestinians working in Israel — report
Although defense minister and IDF barred entry of laborers into Israel after October 7, TV network says some 2,400 businesses have been exempted for ‘humanitarian’ purposes
By Jeremy Sharon
An aerial view of the Volcani Institute. (Yigal Elad, Wikipedia)
February 25, 2024, 10:02 pm
Agricultural research body says planned budget cuts will force it to halt activities
Volcani Institute fears having to renege on local, international research contracts, face lawsuits demanding return of funds, if Knesset approves amended 2024 budget
By Sue Surkes
A pumpkin damaged in a hailstorm at the central Israeli moshav Hatzav, April 2023. (Yuval Ezra)
January 9, 2024, 10:55 pm
Compensation to farmers for extreme weather-related damage up 13% in 2023
Set to pay out over $100 million for damage to crops and livestock, insurance company says climate change events are becoming more frequent, more powerful
By Sue Surkes
Sorting cabbages that would otherwise go to waste at Leket's center in Gan Haim, central Israel, November 2023. (Amir Yaakobi)
January 8, 2024, 3:03 pm
War-linked hikes in prices of fruits and vegetables worsening food insecurity – report
Leket Israel’s annual report says half of discarded agricultural produce is fit for human consumption and should be saved, claims imports only raise prices
By Sue Surkes
Benny Anderman stands in a greenhouse next to vines of rotten red bell peppers, Moshav Talmei Eliyahu, November 15, 2023. (Mati Wagner / The Times of Israel)
November 24, 2023, 10:35 am
As crops wither, farmers say fields will soon be barren without foreign workers
Volunteers help ease the agricultural sector’s devastation since Oct. 7, but as skilled manpower shortages take root throughout the country, farmers lose hope
By Mati Wagner
HaYovel Christian Zionist volunteers receive a briefing before heading to work in the greenhouses, at Mehola in the West Bank, November 9, 2023. (Gavriel Fiske/Times of Israel)
November 10, 2023, 12:16 pm
Cowboys of the wild West Bank: The visiting US volunteers who ‘own guns, love Israel’
The Christian Zionist group behind the recent viral images of American farmhands now in Israel eschews tourist sites in favor of agricultural work
By Gavriel Fiske
LyOr Rabinowiz clears weeds before planting new saplings at the Miyawaki forest in Shdemama, south-central Israel, January 30, 2023. (Sue Surkes/Times of Israel)
February 6, 2023, 12:18 pm
In crowded Japanese-style forest, Israeli trees find space to grow
Miyawaki method mimics nature to reforest degraded land, in what proponents claim speeds process up tenfold
By Sue Surkes
Ilana Toweg, right, and her husband Doron field countless prayer requests because of their prominence as Israel farmers strictly observing shmita, Jewish laws about letting farmland lie fallow every seven years. (Deborah Danan/JTA)
April 23, 2022, 8:38 am
Why an Israeli farmer is celebrated for killing his crops (Hint: It’s in the Bible)
At the urging of his wife Ilana, Doron Toweg let their eggplants die, costing them massive contracts, as they joined a growing movement to observe the biblical precept of shmita
By Deborah Danan
Filthy conditions at a northern Israeli egg farm, where chickens live in cages above piles of their own excrement. (Screenshot)
December 26, 2021, 12:40 am
Hundreds of thousands of chickens to be culled as bird flu spreads; egg shortage due
Agriculture Ministry says it will kill 320,000 laying hens, in addition to the 244,000 that have already been culled in northern Israel in past week
By Sue Surkes and ToI Staff
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