Modern Drip Irrigation

Water engineer Simcha Blass, who had planned some of Israel's first national water projects, noticed in the 1930s that one tree in a row grew far larger than the others, beside a leaking pipe. Decades later, with the arrival of cheap plastics, he and his son Yeshayahu developed a dripper whose long, winding passage slowed water to a steady drip without clogging, and patented it around 1959. In 1965 Blass partnered with Kibbutz Hatzerim in the Negev, near Beersheba, to found Netafim, which sold its first systems in 1966.

By delivering water and fertilizer straight to the roots, drip irrigation cuts water use dramatically compared with flooding or sprinklers, lets crops grow in sand and saline soils, and helped turn the Negev and the Arava into farmland. Netafim grew into the world's largest drip-irrigation company, active in more than 100 countries, and the method is now used from India to California.