A Life with Plants and Farmers
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A Life With Plants and Farm ers Reminiscencesof anAgronomist inPalestine, Israel and Worldwide Isaac Arnon Contents Part One: Childhood 1. The Early Years Arrival and earlierrecollection s; Grand parents; My Parents 2 War I The Right from Antwerp; Wmg; Rerum to London 3. Return to Antwerp Part Two: Adolescence 4. The Youth Movement Joining the Scouts; Has homer Hazair 5. Other Activities Exploring Antwerp; Hobbies; S(lOItS 6. Palestine 1927 Travel to Palestin e; Jerusalem; From TeI ·Aviv to Merullah. 7. An Agronomist in the Making d TheAgronomy Ins titu te; Life as a Student; Specialization; Va ca tions ; Anti·semitism at Gembloux 8. Army Service 6 Tribula tions of a Priva te; Cavalry Officel1iSchool. 9. Belgium and the Jews His torical Background;Jews in Contemporary Belgium; TheAemis h Movement; Jewish Communal politics ; The Second World Wa r Part Three: An Agronomist in Palestine 10. Aliya (settling in Palestine) Gettinga Visa; Lea ving Home; Arrival; Searchfor WorIc; WOIk as a Laborer. 11. Agricultural Research in Palestine· A Personal View Why Pel1iOnaI; Gcvemment Research, research targets; Appointment to Acre;Fmding my Wa y; "I know how lucky 1 am"; Conflict with Rehovot; Changes in Pers onal Sta tus; Seed Produ ction; 888 Per.;onal Rela tionships atthe Workplace; Summing Up. 12. Tribulations of a young Research Worker AgriculruralExperimentation; Durum and Bread Wheats; Land Races; Breeding for Specific Ecological Niches ; DroughtResistance; Intnxluction of New Crops and Varieties 13. The Arab Revolt 1936-39 lOCElffgroond; General Strike; Jewish Reaction; Rela tions at theAgriculrural Center. 14. The Warwithin a War World War II; Ha gana Pris onel1i; Blitzkrieg; Prepa ring for a SecondMa ssada; End of theNighnnare. 15. Sabbatical Middle Ea st Supply Center,Travel to England; Aberystwith; Rothamsted;n; Aberdee London; USA · By Cargo Boat to Jamaica Arrival in the USA ; Traveling throu gh the USA ; ReturnHome 16. Partition Another Commission; The Pa rtition Pla n; Lobbying; The Vote;UN The Interregnum; RamatYochanan. I 17. The War of Independence The FIrst Miracle; The Stale is Born; Rerum 10theGovernment Stock Farm andAgricultural Stlllion;" Mobilisation; Kufr Yusif; Yerl<a 18. My Major Professional "Fashli" (Blunder) The Arava; Debriefing; The Solution. 19. Fatherhood Quiria! Haim; OurFirst-Born; Small-&ale Farming; Danny. Part Four: Agricultural Researcher in Israel 20. Neve-Yaar Waldheim; Interdepartmental Strife for Turf; Unorthodox Solving of Problems; Episode; New Staff 21. The Ministry of Agriculture Politics; Coordinating Agricultural Resean::h; Integration with Rehovot 22 Director of Agricultural Research A Misunderstanding; Appointment as Director; Consulting Farmers; Learning to be a Directorof Research; The Organization of Agriculrural Research; The National and University of Agriculrure; The Agriculrural Research Service; Resignation. 23.The Contribution of Agricultural Research to Rural Development in Israel Background Information; Increasing yields; Water Use Efficiency; Efficiency of Production; Producing for Export; Conclusions. 24. Grandf atherhood 25. The Sinai War Part Five: Life as a Consultant 26. Sierra Leone 27. Spain 28.Congo 29. Mission to Liberia 30.Mexico Part Six: Life as a Pensioner 31. Modernization of Arab Agriculture in Israel; 32. The Effectiveness of Rural planning 33. The International Potassium Institute The Scientific Council; Behind the Iron Curtain;Isrnel 34.Archeology The Beginnings; Srudent of Archeology 35. Odds and Ends A family visit; Consultant; Seed Purchasing mission; A Visit to Mala; What are experiment stlllions fo l1 Jew fights Jew; Open Bean Surge!)' II Preface I wasborn in the firstof decade the 20th cennuyand have almost mana"oedto reach the miUenium. I have lived through the most exciting cennuy in human history, a period that haswitnessed more wide-reaching changes than any other period in human history. It has been a cenrury of political change; of scientific, technological and medical discoveries; of new forms of industrial production and commerce, and of a revolution in communications. In the beginning of the cennuy most of the world was still ruled by empires: the British empire alone controUed one quarter of the globe. The century has seen autocracy replaced in advancedcountries by delTlClCnlC)': constitutional parliamenllll)' rule. the rule of law, respect for the individual, and the right to self-determination. The20th cennuyhas wialso tnessedtragic anddevastating periods: rwo World Wars. a multitudeof lesser wars, Nazism and Holocaus� Fascism and Stalinism, intemationaitelTOrism. Corruption and tyranny are rampant in many developing countries. stifle progress and cause a life of misery for untold millions. There is a resurgence of religious militant extremism. The division berween developed and developing regions, belWeen haves and have-nots is still rampant I have attempted to recreatein my memorythe home and theenvironment I lived in as a youth in orderto gauge the enormous change that hasdeveloped in living conditions in the course of my lifetime. I liYed in a middle class residential horne in a good neighborhood in the modem town of Anrwerp. Running water and indoor toiler facilitieshad only recendyreplaced a hand;)jleratedpump and an outhouse. Like in mosthomes, showersand bathsnon-existent were Gasfor cookingand lighting had beenquite recently installed,replacing a coal burning stove and kerosene lamps with glass chimneys.There was no telephone , and until the mid rwenties no electricity. Even afterelectricity wasinstalJed. refrigernror.;, dishwashe� vacuum cleaners, irons, washing and drying machines were still in a distant future. Tramways in Brussels, the capital, were stiU horse drawn and travel was restricted to the rich. IfI was allowed to chose the cenrury I wished to live in. I would unhesitatingly chose the 20th. from beginningto end I wouldnot have likedto be bornearlier, because life. except for thevery rich, wasfor most people a shoo life of drudgery, malnutrition anddeadly dullness. I would not ha>e liked to be born at a later date, becausethen I would have missed the thri1I and awe of wimessing all the wonderful developments of our times. It is this sense of reverence for the complexity of living things and for the workings of the human brain that has never left me and that I feel to be a most precious asset. I have never become blase when taking a plane and sit daily, always in astonishmen� before my computer. My grear-granddaughters play their games on the computer; they take for granted thatwhen they dial a number, they caninstandy contact a cousin in distantAmerica and watching television is pan of a daily routine. They take for granted what to me. at their age. would have seemed unimaginable luxwy. There is no longer a sense of wonder and awe, and I fuelthat this is a grear loss. I was born not only in the right cennuy, but inalso theright places to growup in. I was bornBelgium, in a democraticand freedom-loving counny,where I never experienoedmanifestations of antisemitism.I passed the most formativeyears of my life as a war refugee in England. mosdy in a rura1environmen� where I learnt to love narure and where I made agriculture my career choice. In this choice I have never wavered. I also Ieamedfrom the English a sense of tolerance, fuir play and honesty that have always guided me DJring my adolescence I was active in a Zionist-Socialist youth movement which funher molded my characterand imbued me with a sense of mission: to reestablish a national home for the Jewish people. I had the privilege of being involved in the realization of this dream. If one defines as a miracle "an event that defies logic,= againststatistical all probabilities and whose outcome is contrary to what the avera"oe person wouldexpect", I have witnessed many miracles in thecourse of my adult life in Palestine -Israel The first and foremost miracle was the establishment of the State of Israel against all odds. As a research agronomist I participated in the transition from biblical fanning based on back-breaking drudgery to modem sophisticated agricultural production, that has occurred inthis counny and in which Jewish and ArabfunnelS involvedalike are I have alsotraveled widely as aCORSUltant on agricultura1research and development in developing countries on behalfof various international organizations. After retiremen� I made a change of profession when appointed Directorof Research at the Serdement Study Center in Rehovot. After a decade, I retired a second time , and I spent two wonderful years at the University as a smdent of an:heology, consolidating my knowledge on what had been a love affair whilst III married to agriculrure. I ampresendy in thepenultimate (tooch wocxf) of decade my life. Asan octogenarianmy mainoccu pation has beenwriting. I have writtenthree bookson based the experience gained during the three main activities of my professional life: as an agronomist and research worl<er - Agriculrure: in Dry Lands - as a Director of Agriculrural Research - Agriculrural Research andTechnology Transfer - and as a consultant on agriculrural research and development in developing countries in four continents - The Modemization of Agriculrure in DevelopingCountries. I have alsobeen Chief Editorof theIsraeli Encyclopedia of Agriculrureand duringthis period I completed six volumes ofa new edition. Having scrnrect the bottom of the professional barrel, I wooId have remainedout of workif my daughter in-law Naomi had not continuously pressed me