Objectives:

1. Economically and environmentally sound management of irrigation, fertilization, crop microclimate control and tillage in open fields, screenhouses and greenhouses.
2. Development of advanced soil management practices. The use of soil amendments for mitigating evaporation, salinization, sodification, runoff, erosion and soil structure deterioration, in both rain-fed and irrigated farming.
3. Development of mechanistic-stochastic models for quantifying water flow and solute transport on the field scale, for assessment of risks of soil and groundwater contamination by organic and inorganic pollutants, and for quantifying C and N turnover in soils.

Activities:
The Institute of Soil, Water and Environmental Sciences is comprised of two departments - Environmental Physics and Irrigation; and Soil Chemistry and Plant Nutrition - in which 22 scientists, 24 engineers and technicians, and more than 20 visiting scientists and students are engaged. The annual research income of the Institute is about $1.7 million, all from local and international competitive grants.

Contact details:

Telephone: 972-3-9683640 or 972-3-9683625
Fax: 972-3-9604017
Email: Innae@volcani.agri.gov.il