The economy of Israel is a highly developed free-market economy. The prosperity of Israel's advanced economy allows the country to have a sophisticated welfare state, a powerful modern military said to possess a nuclear-weapons capability with a full nuclear triad, modern infrastructure rivaling many Western countries, and a high-technology sector competitively on par with Silicon Valley. It has the second-largest number of startup companies in the world after the United States, and the third-largest number of NASDAQ-listed companies after the U.S. and China. American companies, such as Intel, Microsoft, and Apple, built their first overseas research and development facilities in Israel. More than 400 high-tech multi-national corporations, such as IBM, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco Systems, Facebook and Motorola have opened R&D centers throughout the country.
Irrigation is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been developed by many cultures around the world. Irrigation helps to grow crops, maintain landscapes, and revegetate disturbed soils in dry areas and during times of below-average rainfall. In addition to these uses, irrigation is also employed to protect crops from frost, suppress weed growth in grain fields, and prevent soil consolidation. It is also used to cool livestock, reduce dust, dispose of sewage, and support mining operations. Drainage, which involves the removal of surface and sub-surface water from a given location, is often studied in conjunction with irrigation.
Science and technology in Israel is one of the country's most developed sectors. Israel spent 4.3% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on civil research and development in 2015, the highest ratio in the world. In 2019, Israel was ranked the world's fifth most innovative country by the Bloomberg Innovation Index. It ranks thirteenth in the world for scientific output as measured by the number of scientific publications per million citizens. In 2014, Israel's share of scientific articles published worldwide (0.9%) was nine times higher than its share of the global population (0.1%).
Drip irrigation or trickle irrigation is a type of micro-irrigation system that has the potential to save water and nutrients by allowing water to drip slowly to the roots of plants, either from above the soil surface or buried below the surface. The goal is to place water directly into the root zone and minimize evaporation. Drip irrigation systems distribute water through a network of valves, pipes, tubing, and emitters. Depending on how well designed, installed, maintained, and operated it is, a drip irrigation system can be more efficient than other types of irrigation systems, such as surface irrigation or sprinkler irrigation.
Cisco Videoscape was a majority owned subsidiary of News Corp, which develops software for the pay TV industry. NDS Group was established in 1988 as an Israeli start up company. It was acquired by Cisco in 2012 before being sold back to the private equity company Permira in 2018 for US$1 billion. The company is currently headquartered in Staines, United Kingdom.
Hexagon AB is a multinational industrial technology company. Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden and publicly traded on the Nasdaq Stockholm exchange, the company since 2000 has had a particular focus on measuring technology and geospatial tools and software. After its founding, between 2000 and 2022, Hexagon completed more than 170 acquisitions, and it is the parent company of Leica Geosystems and Infor EAM, among other subsidiaries. With around 24,000 employees, Hexagon's revenue in 2023 was US$5.5 billion, while assets were $18.1 billion.
ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE is a German mass media and digital company. It operates in three segments: Entertainment, Dating and Commerce & Ventures. The company is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
Simcha Blass was a Polish-Israeli engineer and inventor who developed the modern drip irrigation system with his son Yeshayahu.
Permira is a British global investment firm specialised in buyout, growth equity and credit funds. Founded in 1985 as part of Schroders, it became independent in 1996. Operating as Permira since 2001, the company became one of the largest buyout specialists. As of today, Permira advises funds with total committed capital of €77 billion, which have invested in more than 300 companies worldwide. The company employs over 470 people in 15 offices across Europe, North America and Asia.
Jain Irrigation Systems, or Jains, is an Indian multinational conglomerate based in Jalgaon. It develops, manufactures, supports and sells diversified products, including drip and sprinkler irrigation systems and its components, integrated irrigation automation systems for monitoring and control, dosing systems, PVC and PE piping systems, plastic sheets, greenhouses, bio-fertilizers, solar power, solar water heating systems, solar water pumps, turnkey biogas plants, photovoltaic systems and tissue culture plants. JISL also processes dehydrated vegetables, spices, concentrated & frozen fruits or pulp. It also provides turnkey projects and agronomical support services.
Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. (FIS) is an American multinational corporation which offers a wide range of financial products and services. FIS is most known for its development of Financial Technology, or FinTech, and as of Q2 2020 it offers its solutions in three primary segments: Merchant Solutions, Banking Solutions, and Capital Market Solutions. Annually, FIS facilitates the movement of roughly $9 trillion through the processing of approximately 75 billion transactions in service to more than 20,000 clients around the globe.
Rivulis is a global manufacturer and provider of complete micro and drip irrigation systems and solutions for seasonal horticulture, orchards, vineyards, row crops, SDI and greenhouse, soilless, hydroponic applications. Founded in 1966 as Plastro Irrigation Systems Ltd, Rivulis is headquartered in Kibbutz Gvat, Jezreel Valley, Israel. The company represents an integration of four industry pioneers and veterans: Plastro, T-Systems, Roberts Irrigation, and Eurodrip. It has 3,300 business partners worldwide, and a wholesale retail and vast dealer network in over 120 countries. The company operates 16 factories worldwide and has 2,000 employees. Rivulis has multiple global design centers and 3 R&D centers in agricultural hotspots of Israel, California, and Greece.
Hatzerim is a kibbutz located 8 kilometers west of Beersheba in the Negev desert in Israel. It is named after the Bible, mentioning a site nearby: "the Avvites who lived in farmyards as far as Gaza". It belongs to the Bnei Shimon Regional Council. In 2022 it had a population of 864.
Agriculture in Israel is a highly developed industry. Israel is an exporter of fresh produce and a leader in agricultural technologies. The southern one-half of Israel is desert. The northern one-half is more conducive for agriculture. According to the World Bank, 29.7 percent of Israel is agricultural land. The shortage of water is a constraint. In 2008, agriculture represented 2.5% of total GDP and 3.6% of exports. Israel is not self sufficient in growing food. In 2021, Israel's agricultural imports totaled 8,791 million and agricultural exports totaled 2,445 million dollars. Grains, oilseeds, meat, coffee, cocoa and sugar were among the imports.
PAI Partners is a French private equity firm based in Paris. It is one of the oldest firms in the sector, with its origins dating back to Paribas Affaires Industrielles, historically the principal investment arm of Paribas, which started operations in 1872.
Gvat is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located near Migdal HaEmek in the Jezreel Valley, it falls under the jurisdiction of Jezreel Valley Regional Council. In 2022 it had a population of 965. The kibbutz founded the Plastro company, one of the world's largest drip irrigation systems manufacturers.
Innovation: Africa is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization which brings Israeli solar, water and agricultural innovations to rural African villages. Since its establishment in 2008, the organization has completed over 900 projects providing light and solar energy to schools and medical centres and crucially, pumping clean water to more than 4.2 million people across 10 African countries. Innovation: Africa maintains headquarters in the US and Israel and has projects across Uganda, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, South Africa, Cameroon, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, and Eswatini.
Orbia is a company providing specialty products and methodologies in the agriculture, building and infrastructure, fluorinated solutions, polymer solutions, and data communications sectors. It was founded in 1953 and has headquarters in Mexico City.
Informatica Inc. is an American software development company founded in 1993. It is headquartered in Redwood City, California. Its core products include enterprise cloud data management and data integration. It was co-founded by Gaurav Dhillon and Diaz Nesamoney. Amit Walia is the company's CEO.
US$ 1.063 billion (2019)
