ANNUAL REPORT

The Negev Foundation promotes initiatives which contribute to the agricultural and general economic self-sufficiency of Israel’s southern region, the Negev, and encourages replacing philanthropic support with income derived through the sale of technology and business ventures

Purpose

The Negev Foundation, a Cleveland based non-profit tax-exempt foundation, pursues its mission by supporting proven scientific, technological, and human innovation. The Negev Foundation sponsors projects promoting sustainable agriculture developed and successfully applied in Israel. Israel and other countries adapting these techniques can increase their agricultural and economic self-sufficiency.

Goals

• Support desert agricultural research in Israel
• Increase productive use of Israel’s Negev Desert through environmentally sound agricultural techniques
• Promote Negev Desert agribusiness
• Encourage replacing non-profit funding with income derived from business ventures, lessening the dependence on philanthropy

History

In 1982, Richard J. Bogomolny, retired CEO of the First National Supermarkets, Inc., and Sam Hoenig, former Executive Director of Jewish National Fund’s Ohio region, convened an informal group to help the Negev Desert develop into a flourishing, economically productive, habitable region. Initially a fund-raising group for high tech applied desert agriculture projects, Arid Lands Development Foundation was incorporated in 1992 as a 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit and expanded the mission to include facilitating economic opportunities through agribusiness and transfer of desert agro-technology initiatives. The Negev Foundation sponsors projects promoting sustainable agriculture developed and successfully applied in Israel. Israel and other countries adapting these techniques can increase their agricultural and economic self-sufficiency. Since its inception, The Negev Foundation has channeled over five million dollars into projects in the Negev.

Not-for-Profit and For-Profit Blended

The Negev Foundation marshals a diverse, dynamic mix of players: not-for-profit research stations, a for-profit growers association, institutions of higher learning, multinational agro businesses, the individual farmer, the individual investor, the committed Zionist benefactor - all for the task of transforming the Negev Desert, Israel’s Final Frontier, into the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. The Foundation functions almost as an investment banker, albeit a different kind of investment banker, focused on a 21st century Zionist endeavor, unencumbered by partisan politics or political agenda.

The Need for Desert Agricultural Innovation in Israel

Israel currently produces almost 85% of the food it consumes. This is supplemented by grain, oil, meat, coffee, cocoa and sugar imports, which are more than offset by agricultural exports (Israel exports 62% of its Gross Agricultural Product). Within 10 years, however, Israel’s food self-sufficiency -- its national food security -- may be threatened:

• 60% of the fresh water currently used for agriculture will not be available.
• If present trends continue, half of Israel’s current farmland will have been sold or converted for industrial, commercial or residential uses.
• Israel’s population, fueled by immigration, is projected to grow in the next decade to 10 million from the present 6 million.

This increasing population trend creates many challenges for Israel: Where will people live? Can Israel provide enough food to meet its growing nutritional needs? And, most importantly, is there enough fresh water to meet Israel’s needs while sharing sufficient water with its Arab neighbors? Because of its scarcity, fresh water is becoming the most important resource in the Middle East, and its management a war or peace issue.

The Negev Desert, where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob tended their flocks, covers 6,757 square miles, two thirds of the State of Israel, yet is currently home to only 12% of the population (about 6% live outside large cities). Having poor soil conditions, a harsh climate, rugged terrain, little fresh water, and a small population, the Negev was largely ignored during modern Israel’s first four decades. It did, however, have some influential supporters, among them David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister.

Israel, historically forced to make the most of limited fertile land and water resources, is now the world’s leader in desert and arid land agriculture. Israel has a wealth of scientists and engineers --115 per 10,000 population, the highest ratio in the world (the United States is second, with 85 scientists per 10,000). Israeli desert agricultural research has concentrated on developing new technologies that enable farmers to use brackish (salty) water for agricultural irrigation, something which had never been done before in any other place in the world. The Negev Desert has very little fresh water but an almost unlimited underground supply of brackish water, now used extensively for agriculture. Since brackish water is abundant in most desert areas of the world, the Israeli techniques have broad international applications.

The Negev Foundation-Supported Institutions in Israel

• Ramat Negev Desert Agro-research Center
• Institute for Applied Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
• Arava Negev Research and Development Stations
• Faculty of Agriculture, Hebrew University

Ramat Negev Desert AgroResearch Center

The Ramat Negev Desert AgroResearch Center (RNDARC), a regional governmental facility, was built at the junction of two different desert terrain types to study multiple crop/ecosystem interactions. The Center works cooperatively with, and provides extension services to, agricultural communities in the Ramat Negev region.

RNDARC has developed agricultural management practices to improve the yield and quality of numerous crops in many arid regions. These include techniques for cost-effective water conservation and erosion control, planting, crop rotation, harvesting and food processing. They have developed new seeds and have successfully introduced many new crops to local conditions. RNDARC scientists have effectively cultivated a variety of traditional fruits and vegetables, established fish farms and beef cattle herds, raised exotic birds, such as ostriches, and grown fodder crops on this previously unproductive land. RNDARC is a world leader in saline or brackish water irrigation research. As a result, saline water is now being used throughout the Negev Desert by the application of environmentally sound principles that have prevented the deleterious effects of salinity.

Yoel DeMalach, RNDARC’s founder, has conducted desert agricultural research particularly in the area of brackish water irrigation for over fifty years, and has published almost 100 articles. For his pioneering work in desert agriculture, Mr. DeMalach received Israel’s highest honor, the Israel Prize, in 1986. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev recently conferred an honorary doctorate upon Mr. DeMalach.

Institute for Applied Research,
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, was 20 years old when he arrived in Israel from Plónsk, Russia in 1906. He spent the next four years as an agricultural laborer in the Negev. His interest in applied agricultural research continued throughout his life. In 1957, he founded the Negev Institute for Arid Zone Research in the Negev’s capital, Be’er Sheva. The Institute later became the Institute for Applied Research of the Ben-Gurion University. When Ben-Gurion left the Knesset in 1970, he retired to Sde Boker, a kibbutz in the Negev, where he remained until his death three years later. Ben-Gurion was committed to fulfilling the biblical vision of Israel as a land flowing with milk and honey. He observed, “If we don’t conquer the desert, it will conquer us.”

The Institute for Agriculture and Applied Biology has a permanent staff of 50, including 14 research scientists. It has ten well-equipped laboratories (including tissue culture and molecular genetics laboratories), growth chambers, eight research greenhouses (including a quarantine facility), and a refrigerated seed storage facility and seed storage program. The Institute also has two experimental stations.

Professor Dov Pasternak, Director of the Institute for Agriculture and Applied Biology, is widely credited for the development of plant varieties adapted to brackish water irrigation which produce highly desirable fruits and vegetables. He has also developed irrigation systems in arid regions throughout the world.

Arava Agricultural Research and Development Stations

The Arava Valley, along the eastern part of the Negev Desert, has three agricultural research stations; Zoar, Yatir and Arava. These regional government labs, partly funded by the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture, The Jewish Agency and Keren Kayemeth Le’Israel, developed technologies geared to each area’s unique climatic conditions and resources. Their research has focused on new varieties of peppers, strawberries, dates, flowers, aquaculture, livestock, fodder crops, flower-seed growing and harvesting, and developing jojoba beans, used in cosmetics and lubricants, a year-round cash crop for the region. Over 90% of Israel’s melon exports come from the Arava.

Faculty of Agriculture, Hebrew University

Faculty of Agriculture researchers have developed several programs addressing the rapidly increasing world population and continuing famine in Africa and parts of Asia. These programs include safeguarding stored food crops, intensification of yields, and comprehensive management and economic techniques to ensure equitable food supply distribution. Many faculty and pre- and post-doctoral researchers have worked at RNDARC facilities and with its staff.

The Negev Foundation Projects 2000 - 2001

Capital Projects

Ramat Negev Desert AgroResearch Center (RNDARC) to perform advanced research in arid land agriculture over an extended period of time. In the past two years, The Negev Foundation has funded the building of a commercial-size solar greenhouse at RNDARC, based on an experimental model developed at Ben-Gurion University. The solar greenhouse, the size of a football field, provides researchers with an experimental “hothouse” allowing them to propagate commercial crops using the technology developed at RNDARC.

Initially, $200,000 was contributed by The Negev Foundation to erect this state-of-the-art facility. In 1999, researchers discovered several deficiencies in the structure that were previously undetected in the experimental model. The Negev Foundation secured an additional $50,000 to modify the solar greenhouse, improving the quality and efficiency of the structure. The Levy-Markus Foundation of Naples, Florida, and Beverly Hills, California contributed funds for this greenhouse.

The Negev Foundation funded additional capital projects over the past two years, including the following:

• Construction of two state-of-the-art commercial size (240 square yards) greenhouses, for new experimentation, such as bee pollination and underground irrigation
• Farm equipment and computer hardware and software for centralized control of greenhouses and farming equipment

Research and Development Projects

It is critical for RNDARC to expand small scale experiments to the order of magnitude necessary to foster commercially viable desert-grown commodities. This research involves the painstaking comparison of environmental conditions, salinity, soil media, temperature and crop variety. In the past, it was Negev Foundation-funded research that enabled brackish and saline water irrigation to evolve from the experimental to the commercial stage, techniques now utilized by farmers throughout the Negev. The Negev Foundation provides grants to develop other varieties of Desert Sweet™ tomatoes to enable year-round production potential, and for two exciting new research areas:

Wine Grape Project

In 1997 RNDARC launched a long term experiment aimed at the production of high quality grapes of the Sauvignon Cabernet and the Sauvignon Blanc varieties. The work includes analysis of the growth and development of grapes under different salinity regimes, and the effect of salinity on the taste and aroma of the fruit for wine production.

Sand Dunes Project

Twenty five years ago, when RNDARC was conceived, it was necessary to locate the actual experimental facility close to water sources and existing roads. Large quantities of sand—an inert substrate for growing plants fed through drip irrigation technology--were trucked from the dunes area lying more than a mile north of the Center’s location. With the huge success that the Center has experienced and the need to expand the research activity and area, work began in 1998 to bring the expanding research facility closer to the dunes, as opposed to bringing the dunes closer to the facility.

The Negev Foundation provided a grant for infrastructure preparation, including an access road from the central facility, electric lines, and the building of two, one-acre greenhouses, completely outfitted with irrigation and fertilization equipment, a drip irrigation computer, sensors, and other vital equipment. By providing the funding, RNDARC can now expand agricultural experiments. Funding for this project was provided by Mrs. Ruth Viny of Cleveland, Ohio in memory of Myron (Mike) Viny.

Hothouse Fruits

With 1999 Negev Foundation funding, RNDARC initiated trials with melons and strawberries to examine their hothouse year-round growing potential, an advantage over European and North American markets.

Hopi/Israel/US Agricultural Initiative

In May, 1998, The Negev Foundation followed through on its commitment to generate a Feasibility and Market Analysis Study. The previous year, the first small-scale demonstration farm began operations near Hotevilla, Arizona. The 4.8 acre farm produced 1,796 lbs. of melons (revigal, honeydew, casaba), 2,048 lbs. of squash (yellow, zucchini), 220 lbs. of tomatoes (cherry, table), and 1,010 lbs. of corn (sweet, blue, white). The project encountered a number of first-year obstacles, including water supply delays, equipment problems, poor native seed stock, uneven farmer motivation, and early snowfall and freezes in October. Nevertheless, the new desert agricultural techniques were largely assimilated and implemented by the farmers.

The Hopi/Israel/US Agricultural initiative is a Negev Foundation-inspired project that garnered the active leadership support of this westernmost tribe of Pueblo Indians to improve their agricultural methods based on desert farming techniques developed at RNDARC. In November 1998, The Negev Foundation met in Phoenix with Hopi leadership, representatives of The University of Arizona Faculty of Agriculture and representatives of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. The University of Arizona, in cooperation with the Institute for Applied Research at Ben-Gurion University, pledged their support to the Hopi Tribal leadership to help facilitate the continuation of the project and is drafting plans for future activities. Funding proposals have been submitted to several Arizona-based foundations, as well as to the USDA.

Promoting Arid Land Agro Business

This area represents perhaps The Negev Foundation’s most significant achievement in the past two years. One of The Negev Foundation's guiding principles is to encourage Negev economic self-sufficiency by replacing non-profit funding with income derived through business ventures. The Negev Foundation, through its for-profit affiliate, Desert Sweet Technologies, Inc., successfully solicited the interest of several major U.S. vegetable and fruit growers and linked U.S. agribusiness with Negev research facilities.

The Negev Foundation initiated dialogue with several major agribusiness entities, including Agro Power Development Inc., the largest grower of hothouse tomatoes in the U.S., and Chiquita Brands International. A group of business leaders representing these companies visited the Ramat Negev facilities. The Negev Foundation organized this mission and funded on-site seminars and visits to Negev commercial sites.

Grow Tech Finance and Development, Ltd., an Israeli holding company, seeks to commercialize Israeli agribusiness technologies. It has formed Grow Tech Research Development Initiatives, Ltd, (Grow Tech RDI), to identify new technology-based business opportunities for Grow Tech companies, provide financial and business management assistance, and coordinate governmental relationships. The Negev Foundation and Grow Tech RDI share interests in the Negev Desert. RNDARC can offer Grow Tech greater access to Israeli researchers, field-testing, interested agribusiness and non-profit partners. The Negev Foundation is encouraging its Negev grantees, in turn, to look to Grow Tech RDI as a marketing arm for their technology.

PROJECTS - 2001 - Today

The Ramat Negev AgroResearch and Business Center

To take full advantage of the emerging synergy between growers, researchers, and multinational agribusiness, a full-scale Agri-Business Center is mandated. Until now, RNDARC has utilized inadequate and deteriorating facilities. Although affiliation with The Hebrew University Faculty of Agriculture and Ben-Gurion University has long provided RNDARC access to their facilities, these institutions are straining under the increasing demands for services. New, modular laboratories, as well as facilities to accommodate agribusiness representatives will help RNDARC advance into the next century, expand the scope of its research, host greater numbers of collaborators and students from around the world, and help generate new business opportunities. This facility will be the first of its kind in Israel.

A grant was received from the David and Inez Myers Foundation for the design and planning of the modern facility. Architectural drawings have been executed and a capital campaign launched to raise the $2.5 million for the new center. This project is the top priority for The Negev Foundation and Ramat Negev and will be the focus of the Foundation’s fund-raising activities until completion. Groundbreaking is anticipated early in 2005.

Officers and Board of Directors

• Richard J. Bogomolny, President, Cleveland, Ohio
• Morton Cohen, Cleveland, Ohio
• Dr. Yoel DeMalach, Ramat Negev, Israel
• David Goldberg, Cleveland, Ohio
• Harley I. Gross, Cleveland, Ohio
• S. Lee Kohrman, Cleveland, Ohio
• Patricia M. Kozerefski, Cleveland, Ohio
• Mark A. Levy, Los Angeles, CA
• Shirley H. Levy, Naples, FL
• Jack N. Mandel, Cleveland, Ohio
• Dr. Arthur J. Naperstak, Cleveland, Ohio
• Norton W. Rose, Cleveland, Ohio
• Professor Colette Serruya, Tivon, Israel
• Star Sacks, Scottsdale, AZ
• Seymour Sacks, Scottsdale, AZ
• Joseph M. Shafran, Cleveland, Ohio
• Robert L. Stein, Cleveland, Ohio
• Ruth K. Viny, Cleveland, Ohio

• Sam Hoenig, Executive Director, Cleveland, Ohio
• Jennifer Tucker, Vice President, Development & Projects, Cleveland, Ohio