AMMAN — The
planting season is expected to be delayed and is likely to result in a shortage
of some agricultural products in the local market, said Director-General of the
Jordan Farmers’ Union Mahmoud Al-Oran.
اضافة اعلان
Agricultural
experts, however, told
Jordan News that it is still too early to predict
the status of the next planting season.
Saleh Al-Shdefat, a
professor of agriculture at
Jerash University, told
Jordan News that
“high temperatures usually affect the composition of olives particularly, which
would affect the quality of olive oil”.
But he added that
“we cannot predict anything now especially that we still have an entire month
ahead of us, when the temperatures become cooler at night.”
Aktham Abu
Khadijeh, a specialist in plant breeding and owner of a seeds production
facility, concurred. He said: “We should wait until the end of October to
predict how the next season will turn out.”
“If the entire month of October does not witness any
weather depressions, the winter planting season would see a delay, and water
reserves would be affected”, he told
Jordan News.
Abu Khadijeh added that “the months of October and
November usually provide dams with 10 to 15 percent of water reserves, which
irrigate several areas that make up 29 percent of the total cultivated area in
Jordan.”
Nonetheless, Abu Khadijeh argued that agriculture is
suffering on a different level. He explained that “the summer planting season
was very harsh, due to the extremely low prices of agricultural products.”
“The supply increasing ahead of demand is a problem
that existed for a long time,” he said. “This usually keeps prices low, unless
exports increase.”
Ahmad Shaheen, owner of an agricultural company,
told
Jordan News that he sold about 20 tonnes of tomatoes for JD37.
Jordan News unsuccessfully tried the Ministry
of Agriculture to comment on its efforts in organizing agricultural products’
growing and marketing.
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