On a visit to a model farm in Israel this week, the potential for Myanmar’s agricultural development was there to see. I had the opportunity to see advanced techniques that Israeli agriculturalists developed and farmers use to maximize water use and grow sustainable crops.

I assume that the main reason of the successful Israel’s agricultural economy is the favorable climate and use of advanced agricultural technology and farm equipment. Land is at a premium in this country and care is taken to make the most out of limited resources.

But in my country Myanmar, use of modern and advanced farm equipment and technology in agricultural economy is in dismal situation as I have seen on my innumerable reporting trips out into the countryside.

As the Israeli Ambassador to Myanmar Mr Daniel Zohar Zonshine made clear in a commentary Mizzima published this year, the methods Israeli farmers use including “drip irrigation” and other methods could be applicable to the development of Myanmar’s agricultural sector.

Interestingly, as I saw, most of the farm workers are from Thailand, and some are refugees employed from neighboring countries.

In most of these orchards and plantations, manpower is used to the minimum level and mechanization is greatly used. They use high tech in pest control and irrigation by computer control. As these orchards and plantations are a long term investment and crucial to the economy, they use technology to protect them from natural disasters and they use genetic engineering methods too.