In many hot and dry places, water is the most valuable thing a farmer has. In the past, most farmers watered their fields by flooding them or by spraying water into the air. A lot of that water never reached the plants. Some of it flowed away, and some of it disappeared into the hot air.
In the 1960s, an Israeli engineer named Simcha Blass developed a different idea. He noticed that a tree near a leaking pipe grew much bigger than the trees around it. This gave him a simple idea: why not give each plant small drops of water, directly at its roots?
Together with Kibbutz Hatzerim in the Negev, he helped to start a company that made thin plastic pipes with tiny holes. The pipes run along the rows of plants, and water comes out slowly, drop by drop. This method is called drip irrigation.
Drip irrigation has several advantages. Farmers usually need less water, because very little is lost. They can also add fertilizer to the water, so the plants get food and water together. Today, farmers in many countries use this method, especially in dry areas. It is not a perfect solution — the pipes cost money and need care — but it has helped many farmers grow more food with less water.