AMMAN –
Water scarcity is the main
concern of 65 percent of the population of Ajloun Governorate who depends on
traditional agriculture for livelihood and income, according to Labor Watch.
اضافة اعلان
“This has led them to endeavor
another approach, such as using modern agriculture methods”, the director of agriculture
in
Ajloun Governorate, Hussein Al-Khalidi, told
Jordan News.
He added that modern agriculture techniques
are becoming more widely used in Ajloun, but project owners and farmers are
still in need of continuous guidance, especially for hydroponics farming. Hydroponics
is the cultivation of plants without using soil. Vegetables are planted in
inert growing media and supplied with nutrient-rich solutions, oxygen, and
water.
Khalidi said that “this type of
agriculture requires a specific amount of nutrition to be added, and if any
mistake happens, it will destroy the whole crop”. As such, he believes that more
projects need to be launched, and farmers require help to obtain the equipment
needed for modern agriculture.
Ala’a Thalji is a trainer in hydroponics
techniques, which she started practicing after finishing her bachelor’s degree
in water and environment management at the
Hashemite University.
“Through hydroponics, we were able
to grow all kinds of greens, such as parsley and rocca, and we also grew tomatoes,
cucumbers and peppers,” said Thalji, adding that “you can grow any type of
vegetables and fruits with hydroponics agriculture, but it depends on the land area
and the system you are applying, as six such systems can be installed”.
According to Thalji, “this type of
agriculture is the most suitable in Jordan due to many factors that challenge
farmers, such as soil salinity, evaporation rates, and water shortage”.
“This system fosters rapid growth,
stronger outcomes, and superior quality, lowers costs and gets more income,
which is what we need to focus on,” she added.
She is now working on a project with
the Food and Agriculture Organization, in cooperation with the
Jordan Agricultural Engineers Association and the Ministry of Agriculture. As part of
the project, 50 workshops were conducted last year for up to 600 trainees. This
year, 40 workshops have been conducted so far.
Secretary-General of the
Ministry of Agriculture Mohammad Al-Hiyari said at the launch of the project last year that
the “Ministry of Agriculture is making it a priority to educate farmers on new
methods of agriculture that will eventually help them”.
The ministry has established three
training centers on hydroponics for this purpose, in the northern
Jordan Valley, Thiban and Tafileh, and a unit for hydroponics agriculture with an area
of 8,000 square meters in the Tannour Dam area. The centers will be managed by
trainees and will create job opportunities for the unemployed in the countryside
and the badia.
The
Jordan Labor Watch report issued
earlier this month stated that more workshops are being considered in modern
agriculture, specialized in training agricultural engineers and local
communities in Ajloun.
According to a
Phenix Center for Economics and Informatics Studies report issued last November, green economy
projects will be able to provide 24 million job vacancies by the year 2034, while
6 million traditional jobs might be lost due to them.
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