N. Kumar (Vice-Chancellor, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University) said that the university is looking forward to expand their collaboration with Israel at different levels along with sending its faculty to the country.
Kumar, along with Jonathan Zadka (Consul General of Israel to South India) & Limor Bletter (Deputy Chief of Mission) said – “TNAU had benefitted from Israeli technology in drip irrigation in the last 20 years. The university was now looking at the next level of technology available in Israel, including Fertigation.
Israel was known for using sensors in drip irrigation and fertigation, which the university was trying to leverage. The second area of cooperation was recycling sewage for agricultural use. Israel had demonstrated its technology by helping install a recycling plant in the Lawrence School at Lovedale in the Nilgiris.
The visitors also saw the recycling plant the university had installed on its campus with the technology it had developed.
Experts from the university would visit the Lawrence School soon to look at areas where they could learn from their Israeli counterparts”. He added, “Use of drones for fertilizer and pesticide application was another area the university was interested in. It also looked at sending its research scholars to work in Israeli institutions”.
Emerging areas of interest like – Artificial Intelligence for monitoring plant health, drone technology for the provision of operating resources & robotics in agriculture, and sensors for early detection of pests, diseases, and nutrient deficiencies were discussed.
Israeli Delegation has visited the TNAU last year too in January 2020, when Dana Kursh was the General Counsel. At that time researchable questions of mutual interest were discussed.
She also expressed her interest in further strengthening the activities of research and development of the TNAU on Nanotechnology. Israel has successfully combined Nanotechnology, remotes sensing, and water management (which is way ahead of others) in the agriculture sector.
