Israeli farmers find a way of making millions from tobacco plants

PUNE: The Israeli farmers have found a new way of making money from the tobacco plant. The scientists of The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and

Environment, Rehovot, part of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have found a way of making human collagen in plants. Collagen is one of the main building blocks of our body. Collplant, the company established by Oded Shoseyov, scientist working with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is traded in the Israeli stock exchange.

"If a farmer grows 30 tonnes to 40 tonnes of tomatoes in 1000 square meter area in a year, it will earn him $ 50,000 to $60,000. If he produces just 1 kg or 2 kg of collagen raw material from the same are in the same duration, he can earn $ 5 million to $ 6 million," said Mr Shoseyov. CollPlant has completed clinical trials. These are safety trials and not the efficacy trials.

The Israeli agricultural scientists have make the first garlic plant in the world that bears flowers and seeds. Naturally, garlic plants does not bear seeds. It spreads through vegetative propagation. "About 50% of the potential of the garlic plant is lost due to vegetative propagation. It also spreads diseases from one plant to another," said Prof. Haim Rabinowitch. India too has banned import of garlic from China due to the diseases it contains. The scientist have developed garlic varieties that will bear flowers and seeds.