Israel is mostly desert, so water has always been precious. In the 1950s an engineer named Simcha Blass noticed a tree growing huge next to a tiny leaky water pipe. The pipe was dripping a slow, steady amount of water right at the roots. He realised this was much better than spraying water everywhere.
With his son Yeshayahu, he turned that idea into a system of thin plastic tubes with tiny holes that drip exactly the right amount of water onto each plant. By the 1960s, the company Netafim was selling these tubes to farms.
The clever bit is how little is wasted. When you spray a field with sprinklers, much of the water blows away in the wind or dries up in the sun before reaching the roots. Dripping water straight onto the soil at the plant means almost every drop is used.
Today drip irrigation helps farmers grow tomatoes, melons, dates and grapes in places that used to be too dry to farm. It is used in over 100 countries - from the deserts of India to the vineyards of California. One Israeli idea is now helping feed people across the world.