The Israeli Army will soon start producing some portion of its own vegetable needs, it was announced today by a military spokesman here.
In view of the serious food shortage, the spokesman said, the Chief of Staff has decided that all units stationed near water will maintain vegetable gardens. Eighty percent of the produce thus raised will be purchased by the Army supply corps and the income will go to the unit funds.
Encouraging prospects for increased supplies of agricultural products by increasing areas under cultivation were reported here by representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture before the eight national agricultural conference today.
Four million dunams (1,000,000 acres) are under cultivation this year, they reported. Forty thousand tons of wheat will be produced as compared to 8,000 last year, as well as 120,000 tons of grains and 130,000 tons of feeds. Areas under cultivation in the Negev, the southern area of Israel, they said, had been increased from 500,000 dunams last year to 800,000.
Deputy Agriculture Minister I. Ephrati told the conference that in view of the increase in the cultivated areas, the food problem seemed well on the way to solution. He stressed the rapid increase in bringing land under irrigation and reported that experimental growing of sugar crops had been started. Four factories had been built to manufacture fertilizers, he said, and an anti-parasite research institute opened.
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