Israel?s financial newspaper, Globes, reported in a late December edition that an agricultural research and development agreement had been reached between Israel and the US state of Texas. The US-Israel Binational Agricultural R&D Fund (BARD), which brokered the deal, announced that the three-year, $1,500,000 agreement was finalized in mid-December. According to Globes, Israel and Texas will each contribute $250,000 annually to finance two or three agricultural research projects a year. According to the terms of the agreement, each project, selected by a bilateral scientific committee, must include both both Israeli and Texan representatives.



Globes noted that Israel's economic mission to Washington plans to sign similar agreements with other states in the US, but Texas was chosen as the first state, because an agriculture cooperation agreement already exists between the two states. BARD, based in Beit Dagan in Israel, finances such bilateral R&D projects and agreements around the United States.