In the wake of Oct. 7, Israeli’s agricultural sector was dismantled. Livestock was destroyed; greenhouses burned; farmers were killed.

In response, ReGrow Israel formed to support Israel’s agricultural industry and to rebuild these vulnerable farming communities. The NGO replaced destroyed farming equipment, delivered bomb shelters to essential farmers in war-zone communities and worked to facilitate insurance claims. They also took dairy delegations on international tours to explore how tech innovations could transform their work.

CJP supports this effort with a $1.5 million emergency grant with a match by the Day-After Fund.

ReGrow Israel is part of Volcani International Partners, which works internationally to end global food and nutrition insecurity by building bridges between local partners and Israel’s leading experts to create agricultural solutions.

“Our first mission overall was to ensure the survival of Israel’s farmers,” explains Volcani’s executive director, Danielle Abraham. “Our mission then expanded pretty rapidly, because survival is not enough. We have to make sure that we utilize this as an opportunity to ensure that the farmers can grow back stronger.”

Abraham considers the Oct. 7 crisis to be an inflection point for the Jewish people and their approach to philanthropy.

“Philanthropy is needed to rebuild the country, to rebuild the agricultural sector, and it plays into issues of national security, food security and the economic direction of the State of Israel,” she says.

CJP’s grant plays a fundamental role in this effort, helping ReGrow Israel to evolve from what Abraham calls a “think tank,” offering solutions, to a “do tank,” offering help on the ground.

“We unite top Israeli agricultural experts, scientists, agronomists, economists and strategic thinkers and planners, together with Israel’s farmers, and we conduct goods assessments. We design innovative projects and models with the farmer in the center. We bring expertise to the table,” she says.

CJP’s grant enables ReGrow Israel to execute four priorities: farming first aid, such as restoring damaged land and soil; economic resilience, such as introducing new, more profitable crops to the region; environmental sustainability, such as developing more sustainable soil practices; and education and innovation, training next-generation farmers to implement new agri-tech solutions.

“We have to make sure that farmers can be more productive, more profitable, more climate resilient and more environmentally sustainable. The grant will strengthen our operations to bridge farmers and experts together to design the right projects,” she says. “We just have faith that we’re going to move forward. CJP saw this genuine need for the communities, for the country, and they stepped up in a most unbelievable way.”

Israel’s dairy sector is one significant focus area. As Abraham explains, dairy is the heart of the kibbutz. However, dairy is also a fixed market in Israel, which means milk prices are regulated, offering the kibbutz guaranteed income.

However, after Oct. 7, the Israeli government enlarged quotas of the dairy farms affected in the western Negev by 20%.

“This was completely unprecedented. The idea was: If we increase their quota by 20%, it enables more money and income to flow into these communities. However, to increase your dairy output by 20%, you really have to invest in your dairy infrastructure, approximately $1.5 million per community, which is a lot of money for a community on its knees. You have to get more cows, you have to expand your milking production systems, and you have to build more cow-shaped shade areas,” she explains.

A third of the grant will address this growth and investment. ReGrow Israel also focuses on dairy innovations, urging the industry toward modernization with technological support.

“The economics of the dairy industry here, the fixed market and the fixed prices, removes the incentive to invest in innovation. Dairies are arguably quite behind,” Abraham explains.

ReGrow Israel also focuses on the greenhouse sector and independent family farms, which focus largely on produce, such as tomatoes.

“The sector was struggling before Oct. 7, which exacerbated all of its existing problems: problems of productivity, problems of profitability, challenges of climate change,” Abraham says. “There’s a huge gap between where farmers are today and what technology exists.”

Farmers are unable to take financial risks to pursue new technology—which is why philanthropy is so essential—and, as she explains, “They don’t have access to neutral knowledge and experts. You need an expert with no vested interest in any technology who can really work with you as the farmer to understand your challenges and your needs on the ground, and work with you to identify which technology is best.”

Farmers also need to be trained on new technology, which the grant supports. As the projects continue to roll out, the emotional impact has been enormous.

“Kibbut Nir Oz suffered terribly on Oct. 7, and I went there to hold a conversation with the agricultural team. The first thing I noted was that everyone had just been promoted, because most of the agricultural leadership of the kibbutz were either killed or taken hostage, and all of their equipment was either destroyed or stolen,” she recalls. “To buy new tractors would have cost $300,000. I realized the farmers couldn’t, quite literally, get back on their feet. They couldn’t fathom how to find capital to make sure they could just replace equipment.”

ReGrow Israel worked to replace the destroyed equipment. Abraham returned to see the new tractors delivered off a truck—an emotional and symbolic experience.

“These farmers didn’t know if they were going to get out with their lives. When they were rescued, they didn’t know who was kidnapped, who was dead, who was missing. And, yet, they were the first ones after being evacuated to go back. And they went back at massive personal risk to themselves, but they went back to save their agriculture. I feel like they are unsung heroes,” she says.

She remembers 56-year-old Reuven Heinik, killed at his dairy farm in Kibbutz Kissufim on Oct. 9. He returned from a safe room to feed and tend his cows. He was shot, leaving behind a wife and three children. The death devastated his community.

ReGrow Israel took kibbutz farmers on an agri-tech tour of innovations in Germany. While there, Heinik’s friends spoke on his behalf. It was a rare display of emotion for a typically stoic group, she says.

“When we took the dairy managers from the region to Germany to look at innovation, they gave unbelievable testimonies that they were doing this in the spirit of Reuven, in memory of his dedication to the cows and the dairies. These are hardcore kibbutz farmers. To see them get emotional about new tractors being delivered, and going to Germany and talking about Reuven, is so moving,” she says.

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