Irrigation with permeates to upgrade the quality of red pepper: a case study in Arava region, Israel

Management of environmental resources presents challenges across agricultural production. In the case of the semi-arid region of Arava Valley in Israel, irrigation with groundwater brackish water is a widespread practice that has severe limitations. In this research studies are taking place for brackish groundwater upgrading for unrestricted use for the irrigation and sustainable agricultural production. The treatment system applies two main treatment stages: nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membrane process and, the pilot system with a capacity of around 1 m³/hr. Different mixtures of nanofiltration and reverse osmosis, Brackish and potable permeates are then applied for the irrigation of pepper crops. The field results with the graphical visualization approach using total ranking, multi-dimensional scaling, and clustering technique show that the conventional brackish feed water produces good results of relaxation time, total soluble solids and Vitamin C content. Treatment system using hybrid nanofiltration and reverse osmosis technology improves product quality related to the relative fruit colour red shade.