{"id":25839,"date":"2017-09-15T03:34:44","date_gmt":"2017-09-15T10:34:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=25839"},"modified":"2017-09-14T23:28:23","modified_gmt":"2017-09-15T06:28:23","slug":"israel-joins-the-fruit-fly-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2017\/09\/15\/israel-joins-the-fruit-fly-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel joins the fruit-fly fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Biofeed\u2019s Nimrod Israely, top centre, with mango growers in Karnataka, India. (photo from Biofeed via Israel21c)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Shortly before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s visit to Israel in early July, Indian diplomats in Israel heard about a revolutionary no-spray, environmentally friendly solution against the Oriental fruit fly (Bactrocera dorsalis<\/em>) made by Biofeed, a 10-employee ag-tech company. They invited Biofeed to be one of six innovative Israeli companies meeting with Modi and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s founder and chief executive officer, Nimrod Israely, who has a PhD in fruit-fly ecology, told the two leaders that Biofeed\u2019s product can protect Indian farmers against fruit flies like the Iron Dome system protects the people of Israel against missiles. The Oriental fruit fly has been decimating 300 fruit species in India and in 65 other countries in Asia, Africa and the Americas and is considered to be the most destructive, invasive and widespread of all fruit flies.<\/p>\n

Biofeed\u2019s lures, hung on trees, contain an organic customized mix of food, feeding stimulants and control or therapeutic agents delivered by a patented gravity-controlled fluid release platform. Attracted by the odour, the fly takes a sip and soon dies \u2013 without any chemicals reaching the fruit, air or soil.<\/p>\n

The launch of Biofeed\u2019s first-in-class attractant for female Oriental fruit flies results from 15 years of development of the core platform and more than a year of development and testing in Israel and Karnataka, India. Mango farmers on four Indian orchards saw an overall decrease of fruit-fly infestation from 95% to less than five percent.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were hoping to bring a solution that will replace spraying and increase productivity by 50%,\u201d Israely told Israel21c. \u201cI am excited by the results, demonstrating the future potential for some farmers to bring about 900 times more marketable produce to market.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
A fruit fly feeding in a Biofeed lure. (photo from Biofeed via Israel21c)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One farmer in the Biofeed pilot explained that previously he had used a trap that attracted only male fruit flies, with limited success. \u201cIf you cut 25 fruits, we were getting only one good fruit; 24 were infected,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

K. Srinivas Gowda, president of the 70,000-farmer Karnataka Mango Growers Association, wrote in a letter presented to Modi and Netanyahu that he \u201cwould like to have this [Biofeed] technology implemented to all the mango farmers through the government of India. This technology can be used to develop pest-free zones in the mango-growing belts in India.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pilot project started after Biofeed won a Grand Challenges Israel grant last year from the Israel Innovation Authority and the Foreign Ministry\u2019s international development agency, Mashav.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have the Oriental fruit fly in Israel. However, until now there was no solution for this problem. So, we took the challenge and chose to focus on India,\u201d Israely said. The company worked with Kempmann Bioorganics in Bangalore to carry out the trial.<\/p>\n

Biofeed\u2019s products are used in many Israeli fruit orchards against the Mediterranean fruit fly and other common pests, including the olive fruit fly and the peach fruit fly (Bactrocera zonata<\/em>).<\/p>\n

\u201cBactrocera zonata is the number two pest in India. There are three main pests in India, so now we\u2019ve given, within two years, a solution for the two most devastating fruit flies in India and in other parts of the world,\u201d said Israely.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are the only company in the world with a solution for those two pests and both solutions are harmless to the environment,\u201d he added. \u201cWe estimate the annual market potential of these two pest segments to be well over $1 billion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Biofeed platform is effective with as few as 10 units per hectare and for a period of nearly a year before the dispenser needs replacing.<\/p>\n

Biofeed, founded in 2005, also has a formula targeting mosquitoes that bear viruses such as Zika.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvolution has given insects an elaborate sense of smell, which they utilize to find mates, food, egg-laying sites and more,\u201d Israely told Israel21c last year. \u201cThe company has developed a liquid formula that \u2018knows\u2019 how to tie different kinds of smells to other materials, as the need arises. The result is a special \u2018decoy\u2019 that draws the target insect through smell. The decoy is slow-released from a device over the course of a year. The insect is drawn to the decoy, feeds off it and dies shortly after.\u201d<\/p>\n

Headquartered in Kfar Truman, Biofeed sees the future of agriculture in developing countries such as India and China.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to bring something that is extremely easy to use: you don\u2019t need tractors, you don\u2019t need to remember to spray once a week, you don\u2019t need to put yourself in danger with sprays, there\u2019s no safety equipment. This is something that can make a dramatic change in agriculture and human health,\u201d said Israely.<\/p>\n

For more information, visit biofeed.co.il\/enhome<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Israel21c<\/strong> is a nonprofit educational foundation with a mission to focus media and public attention on the 21st-century Israel that exists beyond the conflict. For more, or to donate, visit israel21c.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Biofeed\u2019s Nimrod Israely, top centre, with mango growers in Karnataka, India. (photo from Biofeed via Israel21c) Shortly before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s visit to Israel in early July, Indian diplomats in Israel heard about a revolutionary no-spray, environmentally friendly solution against the Oriental fruit fly (Bactrocera dorsalis) made by Biofeed, a 10-employee ag-tech company. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[7399,5326,2845,5761,4730,4330,2225,1881,1959],"class_list":["post-25839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-ag-tech","tag-agriculture","tag-environment","tag-farming","tag-india","tag-israel","tag-science","tag-technology","tag-tikkun-olam"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}