ABSTRACT
Israeli agricultural development has been quite unique: it has been rapid, has changed direction several times within one generation, and has been highly science-based and capital intensive. The intensive growth of Israeli agriculture can be roughly divided into three decades, starting with 1950 following the war of liberation. New crops suitable for export were grown, acreage was enlarged, and yields reached world records. In the 1950s there were no academic extension workers. In the 1960s an intensive up-grading process began. The young advisors first had to gain the confidence of farmers in their paternalistic society. The quick development of a new state, built on agriculture, did fail to make a strong impression on peer nations in Asia, and especially in Africa, which at the same time were also at the beginning of statehood. A vision of what applied research and extension can do for rural development and nation-building.
