Michael Evenari

Michael Evenari (1904-1989) was an Israeli botanist originally from Germany. Evanari figured out the secrets of the ancient Nabatean runoff agriculture systems in the Negev Desert. One of the best examples of ancient, sophisticated water harvesting systems and how he recreated aspects of it today. The Negev, first published in 1971, told the story of some twenty years of study of southern Israel’s desert. It synthesized the findings of botanists, geologists, soil scientists, agronomists, archaeologists, historians, and engineers and told how the applications of their work produced an agricultural surplus in this forbiddingly dry, hot region.

His works on the Nabataeans runoff rainwater management was crucial for modern Israeli agriculture and explained as well how the Nabataean culture was able to supply thousands of inhabitants in a similar arid climate. Evenari showed that the runoff rainwater collection systems concentrate water from larger areas and in so far allow to grow plants with higher water needs in the given arid environment. The mechanism explained a variety of ancient agricultural features, terraced wadis, channels for collecting runoff rainwater, and the phenomenon of “Tuleilat el-Anab”, grape mounds.

With an updated version of his original book, Michael Evenari amplified the book’s messages with data from another decade of work. He describes the efforts at a new farm at Wadi Mashash, extends the weather data another ten years, presents further work on the adaptations of plants and animals to desert conditions, and takes a much deeper look at the historical precedents for the method of runoff agriculture, which has made the desert bloom.

Evenari cared about the cultural heritage of the Bedouin and saw them more as ‘fathers’ than ‘sons of the desert’.

Location: Israel 

Book: The Negev: Challenge of a Desert

Video 1: Challenge of the Negev

Video 2: Negev Desert Now