Israel’s agricultural sector faced a challenging year in 2023, with a record high number of crop damage cases reported, according to an annual report released Sunday by the Insurance Fund for Natural Risks in Agriculture (Kanat). Owned by the government and 11 leading agricultural organizations, Kanat documented over 12,200 instances of crop damage last year, an 11% increase over the approximately 11,000 reports in 2022.
The total climate-related damages reported by agricultural practitioners reached a staggering 390 million shekels (about $106 million), marking a 13% increase from the previous year and the highest level of damages since 2015.
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The fruit sector was hit the hardest, incurring losses nearing 130 million shekels in 2023. This was followed by damage to vegetable crops, which amounted to 79 million shekels, and the animal breeding sector, which faced over 70 million shekels in losses.
Kanat’s report links this surge in damages to extreme weather events, particularly attributing it to global warming. The impact was most severe in April, when an unexpected hailstorm disrupted the flowering of various fruits and adversely affected wine vineyards, underlining the growing challenges faced by Israel’s agricultural sector in the era of climate change.