Today it was agreed that a long term teaching relation between AICAT and Smmol owner Eyal Policar
will come into effect.
Ep will be teaching all the agricultural students agro-economics, modern marketing methods and the use of computers in the agro-business.
AICAT-arava international center for agricultural training is a very unique system where students
come on a one year program, they work on the farms and therefore generate a nice salary, they study once a week at the
AICAT center, and at the end of the year they must hand in a mini-project which is done on the farm with the farmers, and is written in academic standards with the help of the AICAT staff.
The students
come from Thailand,Nepal,Philippines,Vietnam,Myanmar and Tibet.Those groups who speak no english have a translator.
The studies include Economics.marketing computers, irrigation, fertigation and specialized crop
growing. They have field days and open days in
different farms so they see different agro-technologies.
Its a fantastic program where they learn through their work and through class learning
Eyal Policar
Asparagus Verigatus
What is a tension meter you ask?
Well its a device that most modern farmers use by inserting IT into the
soil and it reads the tension in the soil.
This device has been around for many years, but in order for it to be effective and to participate
in the decision making process of when to irrigate, how much to irrigate and what intervals to irrigate you have to
be a scientist.
Why you ask? well you have to read it every day at precisely the same hour...you have
to calculate the raw values to numbers that you can work with....and you have to have at least 2 tension meters in each station
at different depths..(where the root begins usually 6-8 inches(10-15 c"m) and where the critical mass of the roots
are (this varies according to what you grow. trees,vines,bushes, shrubs etc.)
In a 1 hectar you need at least 3 stations that 6 tension meters.. so you see a farmer may spend all
day just trying to read and analyze the data
Not Practical.
But now Mottis has got a tension meter than you can hook up to a control unit that has a cellular modem.
My home computer "calls up" the controller and downloads the last 12 hours of data.
I can see at any time if my field is in "stress" should I irrigate or should I wait.....what a tool
it will save me lots of money by irrigating when the plant needs the water not when I think it needs to be irrigated.FANTASTIC
eyal policar
Hibiscus
