Cultivation of wheat and barley in the desert... This is how Jordanian farmers face climate changes

Central Badia -

Deep in the Jordanian desert in the Central Badia, the yellow ears of wheat and barley sway with every eastern or western breeze, announcing the arrival of a rich harvest season that enriches farmers, increases seeds, and faces climatic changes, water scarcity and rain.

Under the scorching desert sun, Jordanian farmers wrote a success story in planting improved strains of wheat and barley seeds that adapt to arid desert areas, in cooperation with the Agricultural Research Center in Madaba (southern Jordan).

Wheat and barley fields spread over large areas, so production was abundant, and one dunam (a dunam of one thousand square metres) returned with an increase of 100% over previous seasons planted with traditional varieties of seeds. climate change conditions.

Jordan annually imports about 1.2 million tons of wheat for local consumption, 80% of which are from Romania, and the rest from Ukraine and other origins. For 2021, the value of 1.1 billion dinars (1.5 billion dollars), and the general budget suffers with the rise in wheat prices globally by about 50% with the Russian-Ukrainian crisis.

Umm Qais wheat

With the advent of the winter season at the end of last year, the investor Youssef Abu Abdoun plowed his land in preparation for planting it with improved varieties of wheat and barley.

What distinguishes this variety - as Abu Abdoun says - is that its ears are long, its yield is richer, and the stems of plants are longer, and the remains of the crop are collected as animal feed known as "hay and straw", and are included in the feed mixtures for livestock throughout the year, he said.

He continued, "I used to plant 100 dunams with regular municipal seeds, but the production was weak, and the production of one dunam reached 200 kilograms. As for the current season, with improved seeds, the production quantities have increased by 100%. The yield of one dunam ranges between 400 and 450 kilograms, in addition to the increase in straw quantities." and straw to 500 kilograms per acre.

This season, Abu Abdoun is planting 250 dunums, and he intends to plant 400 dunums with the same improved seeds next winter.

Experts in the agricultural sector believe that the contribution of such projects and these small areas to achieving Jordan's need for wheat and barley will be simple and limited, compared to Jordan's need to cultivate 4 million acres of wheat and barley to achieve self-sufficiency.

According to a source in the Jordanian Ministry of Agriculture, the Kingdom’s annual production of wheat constitutes 2% of its food needs, while the local production of barley constitutes 5%, which indicates that Jordan imports 97% of its needs of wheat and barley from abroad, and that the Kingdom’s production is only sufficient. 10 days.

Jordan's annual production of wheat constitutes 2% of its food needs (Al-Jazeera)

desert treasures

At the foot of a desert hill in the Umm al-Rasas area in the Central Badia, the investor Hamad al-Sakhri grows strains of improved seeds, and he tells Al Jazeera Net that the seeds need at the beginning of the season for small amounts of watering if the rains do not fall, and during the agricultural season over a period of 6 months, they are irrigated 3 times, and if The winter season was heavy, so you did not need any watering from underground wells.

Al-Sakhri sells his crop to the Agricultural Research Center at 550 dinars ($775) per ton of wheat, and 470 ($662) per ton of barley, at a subsidized price to produce strains of improved seeds for the next season.

The success story of Abu Abdoun, al-Sakhry and their neighbors who are farmers, are not without a number of challenges, most notably the high costs of agricultural production requirements such as fertilizers, pesticides, equipment such as covers and pipes, the high costs of electrical energy, oil derivatives, transportation operations, and the prices of irrigation water.

According to farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Agricultural Research Center provide, in addition to improved seeds, training courses for farmers, extension visits, agricultural plows and crop sprayers if needed, and field visits during the planting season.

agricultural technology

The Agricultural Research Center in Madaba governorate has allocated 6 types of wheat and barley that have been developed and modernized over the past 15 years to suit the northern, central and southern regions of Jordan, adapt to climatic changes and the scarcity of rain, and achieve an abundance in production of more than 50% of the other types, according to the statement of the director of the center, Awad. Kaabana.

Al-Kaabneh added that the past few years, new seeds have been circulated to a number of farmers with the aim of multiplying them, and crop production is purchased from farmers at a subsidized price for the benefit of the National Center to sterilize them and prepare them for the next season.

According to experts and specialists, such pioneering projects for farmers indicate long-term and sustainable solutions to the problem of importing wheat and barley, and set plans to achieve self-sufficiency in these two important materials, in addition to the symbolism of the place of cultivation in a barren desert area with scarce rain, and the expansion of farmers to cultivate new lands in the same areas.

The Jordanian Cabinet agreed to buy wheat and barley crops, both types of seeds and ports, from farmers, depending on wheat purchase prices between 450 and 500 dinars per ton (592 and 702 dollars), depending on its type, and the adoption of barley prices from 370 to 420 dinars (521 to 592 dollars) per ton, depending on its type. .

Jordan annually imports about 1.2 million tons of wheat for local consumption (Al-Jazeera)

strategic crops

Jordan has begun implementing plans to expand the cultivation of wheat, barley and a number of strategic crops, according to experts and specialists, through the establishment of promising projects initiated by the Jordanian Armed Forces in cooperation with companies in the private sector in areas recovered from the Israeli occupation, Al-Ghamr and Al-Baqoura, in addition to those individual agricultural initiatives that It may pay off in the future if there is real care.

The Jordanian Social Security Investment Fund launched an agricultural project in the south of the Kingdom to contribute to meeting the Kingdom's needs of strategic agricultural crops, with an area of ​​30,000 dunams and a value of 13 million dinars (about $18 million). The first phase included planting 8,000 dunums of wheat, barley and animal fodder crops.