Efficiency Is Mission Critical

Nahar, who is in charge of potatoes at Kibbutz Nirim (second from left), with Omer Glili (far left), a part-time farm worker when he’s not working on his Ph.D.; Ofra Razz, who is in charge of Nirim’s pest management; and Ohad Gotshtat, Nirim farm manager.

At Kibbutz Nirim, farmers use Massey Ferguson tractors for a variety of reasons. One is the excellent service they get from farm equipment distributor Comasco. “They’re always here when we need them,” says Farm Manager Ohad Gotshtat through a translator. “They also ask us questions about what we are doing and how they can help. They don’t try to sell us things we don’t need.”

Another reason for using Massey Ferguson: fuel efficiency. “We try to make [farming] as mechanized as we can,” says Nirim farmer Nahar, who asks we only use his first name for security-related reasons.

Nahar notes the kibbutz owns three Massey Ferguson tractors that are used for a variety of tasks, from pulling trailers to planting. Yet, he says, there’s a downside to mechanization, “diesel is very expensive here … and we found the Massey tractors to be fuel efficient. They’re not consuming that much diesel and that’s a good thing, a very good thing in Israel.”

<< See the full story, “Farming on the Edge: Raising Food in Israel”