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as output has grown. In 1955, one Israeli farmer could feed 15 people; by 2007 one farmer could
feed 100. Agriculture today directly employs less than 3 percent of the labor force and accounts
for about the same proportion of GDP.
Farm products have fallen as a percentage of Israel's total exports, but even today about
one-quarter of Israel's harvest is sold abroad. Like industry, agriculture faces problems of high
costs and small scale in competing in overseas markets. To overcome them, growers use re-
search and development to identify new products and niche markets. They also employ ad-
vanced growing technology, such as drip irrigation, to use water effi ciently, and greenhouse
technologies to control heat, light, and humidity.
Citrus accounted for only 5 percent of Israel's $5.5 billion in agricultural output in 2007,
but in its place Israel now exports exotic fruits and fl owers and has been at the forefront in
innovations allowing it to sell off-season fruit and vegetables abroad, an effort now emulated
by Chile and other developing countries. Vegetables accounted for 24 percent; other fruit and
cattle made up another 17 percent each.
In spite of the progress made in increasing output and exploiting limited resources, Israel
suffers serious constraints in expanding its agriculture. A small country with an arid and semi-
arid climate, only about 20 percent of its land is arable. Much of the best land, most notably
the orange groves that once surrounded Tel Aviv, has been given over for homes, factories, and
offi ces as the country's population has grown.
Israel's Mediterranean climate means that rainfall occurs only between October and April.
To ensure suffi cient water for crops year-round, about 40 percent of the country's arable land
is irrigated, about six times the rate in 1948. About one-half the country's potable water goes to
Fresh-picked grapefruit are loaded into bins before being trucked to a juice factory near the town of Hod
Hasharon in central Israel, March 2008. (Getty Images / Image Bank.)
