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Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
Agricultural Center
POB 50200
Bet-Dagan
(03) 9485555
(Source: Israel Government Year Book)
Website: http://www.moag.gov.il/
Email: pniot@moag.gov.il
Functions and Structure
The Ministry of Agriculture plans the growing and distribution of farm
produce. The Ministry helps rural settlements develop agriculturally and
economically, manages the nation's water supply and lands (the Minister
chairs the Israel Lands Council), and collaborates with the Rural Settlement
Department of the Jewish Agency in the establishment and consolidation of
new communities.
MAJOR SPHERES OF ACTIVITY
The Ministry's activities embrace the 11 subdivisions and topics listed
below, in addition to other units and organizations subject to the
jurisdiction of the minister.
Planning and Development of Rural Communities and
Agriculture: The Ministry deals with all problems of short- and
long-term agricultural planning; produces consumption and strategic
market-research forecasts; allocates sectorial growing and production
quotas; draws up annual and multi-annual programs and development plans for
agricultural infrastructure, regional enterprises, and settlement patterns;
performs agricultural and rural-settlement research; and manages
international projects in agriculture and development of backward regions.
Activities also include relations with international institutions abroad and
management of agricultural production in Judea-Samaria and the Gaza
District.
The Soil Conservation and Drainage Department is
responsible for developing programs at the local, regional, and national
levels for the utilization of effluents, for conservation of land resources,
surface water, and natural vegetation, and for drainage projects to protect
agricultural and built-up areas from floods. To these ends the Department
collects and analyzes field data and decides how to implement the programs.
The Department is responsible for 23 drainage authorities and eight pasture
authorities that implement the regional and national plans. Through the
district soil conservation offices it guides and instructs farmers on
projects for local drainage and runoff impoundment. The Department has
professional units for mapping, land and pasture surveys, soil conservation
planning, regional and local drainage, reservoirs, pasture, and applied
research, performed by the Department's runoff research station. All soil
and pastureland conservation plans are based on land and vegetation
surveys.
The Agricultural Research Administration, comprising
research institutes and farms throughout the country, deals with issues
ranging from the development of new strains to the adaptation of
agricultural mechanization and technologies. The Administration also engages
in the development of disease- and pest-resistant strains and modern storage
methods suitable for agricultural exports in the late twentieth century.
The Credit and Development Division provides
agricultural financing and credit. Since the establishment of the Moshav
Debt Arrangement Administration, the Division has participated in the
Administration's routine activities; its director is deputy director of the
Administration on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture. The Division has
three departments: Moshav Credit and Finance, Kibbutz Credit and Finance,
and Development. The two credit departments assess entrepreneurs' financial
capacity to undertake investments, approve small-scale projects within the
framework of the law, draw up and assess farm financial plans, reschedule
the debts of farm settlements not covered by the Ravid arrangement, and
manage an assistance and working capital fund. Division activities at the
level of Arrangement Administration regional teams include drawing up
detailed plans for rural settlements, evaluating plans, and providing the
administration with professional services. The Development Department
releases funds to entrepreneurs on account of investments approved by the
Agricultural Investments Administration, after receiving instructions and
approval from the Investments Administration, in accordance with
implementation reports and budgetary constraints.
The Extension Service assists farmers by providing
individual guidance, sectorial and farm development planning, and crop
guidelines to permit optimum utilization of the means of production in the
various parts of the country, in accordance with their climatic and
agricultural conditions. The Extension Service coordinates the full range of
activities in the areas of guidance, development, and professional
advancement of all agricultural sectors and activities. The Service's
professional units advise the Ministry's administration on formulation of
policy, and guide and advise the district and regional extension offices and
field services. The ten district and regional extension offices provide
agricultural guidance and advice, organize field visits and demonstrations,
offer workshops and short courses, and, most important of all, extend
guidance to individual farmers on their farms. In coordination with the
Ministry's other units, the Service places special emphasis on activities to
promote exports, import substitutes, and guidance to fledgling settlements,
in accordance with the Ministry's goals and objectives.
The Agricultural Investment Administration encourages
capital investment in agriculture, development of agricultural exports, and
utilization of the agricultural sector's natural conditions and professional
experience. The Administration was set up in order to implement the
Encouragement of Capital Investment in Agriculture Law, passed by the
Knesset in 1980. The Administration's director is appointed by the
Government (upon the recommendation of the Minister of Agriculture); its
members are appointed by the Ministers of Agriculture and Finance. The
Administration approves projects in accordance with planning guidelines
formulated by the Ministry for each fiscal year, after scrutiny of economic,
professional, and sectorial considerations.
The above-mentioned law encourages investments in two ways. The first is a
grant equal to 40% of the investment. The second is income tax benefits for
every approved plan, in the form of accelerated depreciation and an
income-tax ceiling of 30% for corporations, 15% for recipients of corporate
dividends, and 30% for non-incorporated individuals who keep double-entry
books separately from an approved enterprise. Individuals who do not keep
separate books of account are entitled to a 17% income-tax credit. These
benefits are granted for the first five profit-showing years of a project,
but not beyond the twelfth year after its approval. Farmers with land,
water, and production quotas may apply for approval of their plans.
The Plant Protection and Control Division is
responsible for preventing the incursion of new blights by monitoring
imports and quarantining plants; for issuing health certificates for
agricultural exports as required by importing countries; for detecting
diseases, monitoring their spread, and drawing up lists of diseases found in
Israel; for detecting and eradicating new diseases before they spread and
for treating blights that have penetrated and preventing their spread. The
Division licenses, registers, and supervises the use of agricultural
pesticides and monitors pesticide residues. It manages a computerized
information center, in cooperation with the Extension Service; regulates
trade in plant reproduction materials; inspects commercial seeds and
certifies improved strains. The Division sees to the marking and
registration of root-stock trees and plants; inspects agricultural produce
for export (fruit, vegetables, and flowers); inspects and licenses fodder
and livestock feed supplements. It helps farmers in the control and
prevention of diseases and pesticide and fodder testing. Finally, it
conducts applied research in all the above areas.
Veterinary Services: The Livestock Health Office and
the Veterinary Institute are responsible for supervising sanitation and for
the prevention of livestock disease.
The Center for International Development and
Cooperation provides assistance to developing countries,
particularly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, in the form of direct
training, advanced courses in Israel, on-site courses overseas, and
consultancy on and planning of agricultural facilities. The Center (Cindco)
coordinates joint research studies for developing countries, staffed by
scientists from Israel, from other sponsoring countries, and from developing
countries. These studies are coordinated with Israel's agricultural research
centers in Israel, including the Volcani Institute, the Agriculture Faculty
of the Hebrew University, Ben-Gurion University, Tel Aviv University, and
the Technion. As a result of the fruitful cooperation among Israeli
researchers and research institutes, the sponsoring countries, and the
developing countries, the sponsoring countries are expanding their funding
of these activities for the coming years. Cindco also collaborates with a
number of non-governmental agencies abroad, often with the participation of
outside funders, to develop projects, courses, and research. These links are
undertaken in full coordination with the Foreign Ministry's International
Cooperation Department.
The Water Commission is responsible for the country's
water supply. As such, it allocates agricultural, industrial, and urban
water quotas and sponsors the development of new water sources and runoff
catchment projects. Additional agencies under the auspices of the Minister
of Agriculture include the Nature Reserves Authority (NRA). The ILA is
responsible for the country's land, determining land use as prescribed by
resolutions of the Israel Lands Administration Council, and allocating land
to urban, agricultural, and industrial developers. The NRA is responsible
for the development, operation, and preservation of nature reserves
throughout the country and for the preservation of its landscape, flora, and
fauna.
The Ministry also operates through various production boards, run jointly by
the government and the farmers. The boards are responsible for production
and marketing in their areas of agriculture and for allocating subsidies
and/or quotas, where these exist, to farmers. The Minister is responsible
for other public agencies and state-owned enterprises, such as Tahal (the
Israel Water Planning Authority), Meqorot, the Natural Damage Fund, Agrexco,
and Agridev.
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