Saving Israeli agriculture is very much a part of the existential war our country is facing right now

Talking to farmers from the Otef (Israel's Gaza border region) I've learnt so much about how the Hamas invasion on October 7th wasn't "just" about murdering and kidnapping Israelis, it was also an assault on Israel's ability to feed its people.

Hamas targeted agricultural equipment, greenhouses, dairies, livestock, orchards, fields, barns, agricultural sorting and logistics centres. The damage was so extensive that even now, ten months later, it is still being repaired, you can still see scorched trees and impact craters and holes.

On top of this the ferocity of the rocket and mortar far from Gaza in to Israel meant that for weeks or months farmers could not access their fields and orchards. Some trees are hardy enough to survive that, many field crops and plants simply withered and died, vast quantities of produce were lost, endangering Israeli food security.

For example, volunteering on a banana farm on Israel's Carmel Coast (near Haifa) I learnt that they need to be watered every day. In Israel recycled water is used because every drop is precious. They need to be weeded by hand because using chemical weed killers would kill the banana plants along with the weeds. Israel does not import or export bananas as a precaution against the Panama virus decimating bananas in many other countries.

The Carmel Coast has thankfully been mostly quiet and safe during this war, the reason they needed volunteers was due to labour shortages, but anything mechanised, like the irrigation system, was not affected.

Learning all about banana growing in Israel from this farmer who's been working with bananas for nearly 50 years I understood why when I'm down in the Otef region I've passed by so many groves and net houses with shriveled, collapsing banana plants - with the damage to irrigation infrastructure and then areas where for months the war meant no access to many agricultural areas, the plants simply couldn't survive.

You might say, well, it's just bananas, what's the big deal but you'd be missing the point that this is just one example of locally grown produce that was destroyed, massive quantities of fruits and vegetables that all Israelis (and some of our neighbours - among the humanitarian aid Israel sends to Gaza area fruits and vegetables grown in the Otef) rely on that did not get to market because of Hamas.

I could have written about shortages in locally grown tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce so many staples which at various times over the last ten months have had supply issues. Shortages drive up prices, which pushes more people in to food insecurity.

Farms who lose all their produce and infrastructure may go under, or may not have the funds to buy seed needed to plant for the next season, creating more shortages. Farming isn't just about the right now, it's about seeing the next season or seasons and knowing that you have to plant or prune or trellis now so that in a few months time you will have a crop. 

This is why volunteering in agriculture is so vital, especially now. Farmers in the Otef are struggling every day to rebuild, restore and replant.

Farmers in the Otef started doing this already during the first week of the war, even as hundreds of rockets continued to rain down, even as the army was still chasing down the last of the Hamas terrorists who had infiltrated Israel.

And you have to remember that these Otef farmers? Many of them had just lost many members of their communities, family, friends murdered or kidnapped by Hamas. Many had just spent hours and days locked into their shelters while terrorists marauded through their villages murdering, raping, pillaging and taking hostages.

These are people deeply traumatised by the brutal assault on their homes and communities on October 7, but who still went back to a war zone to keep our country fed. People with the incredible resilience to go back to places where Hamas committed unspeakable horrors. People who put their lives on the line so that the wheat would be sown and the greenhouses full of staple foods would be rebuilt and replanted.

The Hizballah bombardment of northern Israel is very much about creating a similar agricultural crisis in the vital farming areas close to the Lebanon border. Eighty thousand Israelis are displaced from the north, but many farmers chose to stay in their villages despite the daily rocket and drone barrages from Hizballah. These men and women literally take their lives in their hands each day to collect the eggs, tend to their orchards and harvest their fruit. Some of them have been killed or injured.

Even as I'm writing this there are incredibly brave men and women, volunteers from across Israeli society, many of them pensioners, who have gone up to farms near the Lebanon border, places where there is often no warning time for incoming missiles.

They are volunteers who are there to support the local farmers to bring in the summer harvests which are peaking now, some of which have already started to rot and drop from the trees because the war situation means the farmers have been unable to pick them on time.

The fact that ten months into this war you can still go to your supermarket or greengrocer in Israel and find them well stocked with a selection of fruits and vegetables is thanks both to these determined resilient farmers and to these intrepid volunteers who for these ten long months have been going to volatile frontline areas to help maintain Israel's food security.

Why is all this relevant to you?

There is a lot you can do to help without going up to a frontline farm. There are farms in many parts of the country which need help right now for all kinds of reasons. Farmers drafted to emergency reserve duty, labour shortages, problems importing vital equipment due to the Houthi blockade in the Red Sea. There are also many Otef region farms and logistics centres for Otef region farms in areas which are thankfully today quiet and secure, still trying to get their heads above water after the destruction and damage of October 7th. 

Even a few hours of volunteer time can make a difference, it's amazing how much can be done with a few extra hands to pick the tomatoes or weed the lemon trees.
If you live in Israel or if you are visiting from abroad take a few hours and lend a hand to a farmer.

You can join a free volunteer bus from organisations like Leket and Hashomer Hahadash, or you can drive out to a farm near central cities, some are even accessible on public transport.

Saving Israeli agriculture is very much a part of the existential war our country is facing right now.