Amman – Jordan’s agricultural sector has recently been facing unprecedented climate challenges that are increasingly shaping the country’s economic and environmental landscape.
Weather fluctuations are no longer merely passing seasonal occurrences. They have evolved into severe weather events, including powerful winds and intense rainfall affecting agricultural areas across the country.
Such extreme weather conditions are expected to cause significant and immediate damage to fields and orchards. They often result in the breaking of fruit trees, the erosion of fertile topsoil, and substantial losses to orchard crops and greenhouse production, which are central to local food security and a primary source of income for entire families.
A Pivotal Role for the Agricultural Risk Fund
Food security expert Dr. Fadel Al-Zoubi said that, given the unprecedented climate challenges facing Jordan’s agricultural sector, an important question arises: how can farmers be protected and supported in remaining on their land?
He said the Agricultural Risk Fund plays a central role as an institutional framework established to address natural disasters of this kind and reduce their impact on the sector. However, a legitimate question raised by the agricultural community today concerns whether the fund is sufficiently resourced and effective to cover the enormous scale of damage. Estimates vary regarding its financial capacity to absorb the extensive field losses suffered by farmers across the governorates.
Al-Zoubi added that, on the ground, the Ministry of Agriculture has moved to establish specialized committees to conduct field inspections and document damage in affected areas in preparation for compensation. While this is an important practical step, uncertainty remains surrounding the mechanisms and criteria used to determine compensation amounts and the timeline for payments.
According to Al-Zoubi, this administrative uncertainty leaves farmers waiting anxiously for clear answers about the fate of their crops and seasonal efforts, while prolonging the uncertainty that accompanies damage assessments every winter.
He stressed that addressing these challenges requires more than simply assessing damage after it occurs. It calls for proactive measures to strengthen agricultural resilience. These include adopting sustainable farming practices, establishing scientifically designed windbreaks, improving rainwater drainage channels to prevent soil erosion, and expanding the use of early warning systems to alert farmers to climate-related risks before disasters strike.
He also emphasized that promoting comprehensive agricultural insurance would provide a major safety net for protecting agricultural investment over the long term.
Supporting Jordanian farmers under these exceptional circumstances, he said, is not a luxury but an urgent national necessity to ensure sustainable domestic production and protect the food security system. While activating existing mechanisms is important, full transparency in support and compensation procedures remains essential to ensure that assistance reaches those entitled to it and strengthen agricultural producers’ confidence in the Kingdom’s institutional protection system.
Agriculture Is Closely Linked to Food Security
Dr. Khaled Khreissat, Executive Director of the Academia-Industry Integration Platform, said agriculture in Jordan extends far beyond traditional production activities. It is closely linked to food security, household incomes and the stability of rural communities, while also intersecting with industry, transport, energy, water, trade and exports.
He added that thinking about the future of the agricultural sector should not be limited to measuring the scale of losses after they occur. Instead, it must extend to building the capacity to anticipate risks, prepare for them and limit their impact before they develop into crises.
Agricultural resilience, he explained, means the ability of farmers and the sector as a whole to prepare for risks, adapt to them, maintain production and recover with the fewest possible losses. This requires an integrated system combining knowledge, technology, financing, planning and resource management.
Khreissat noted that the agricultural sector has undergone major transformations over the decades, gradually moving from widespread dependence on rainfall and traditional expertise towards a more organized model based on irrigation projects, scientific research, agricultural extension services, financing and modern technologies.
Irrigation projects, particularly the East Ghor Canal, which later became the King Abdullah Canal, represented a major turning point in agriculture in the Jordan Valley. This development took place alongside advances in agricultural research and the establishment of specialized financing institutions, he said.
The significance of this progress is reflected in the sector’s current performance. Agriculture recorded the highest growth rate among economic activities in the second quarter of 2026, reaching 7.8%, while its direct contribution to gross domestic product stood at 4.5%.
However, its broader economic impact goes well beyond that figure. A study by the Department of Statistics indicates that agriculture and its links with food industries, transport, storage, energy and production inputs affect approximately 23.5% of economic activity, with value added estimated at around JD 1.7 billion.
Vegetable and fruit exports increased by 14% in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period in 2025, reaching approximately 281,700 tonnes. This reflects the ability of Jordanian agricultural products to compete and access international markets.
Despite this progress, Khreissat said, agriculture faces interconnected challenges, foremost among them water scarcity. Jordan is classified as one of the most water-scarce countries in the world, and available data indicate that agriculture accounts for the largest share of water consumption, at approximately 50% to 52%.
This makes the adoption of modern drip-irrigation technologies, sensor-guided irrigation systems and the use of advanced treated wastewater an urgent strategic priority.
Other challenges include climate fluctuations, rising energy and transport costs, and difficulties in organizing production and marketing. Farmers may achieve good yields only to face losses because of a surplus of a particular crop or an inability to market their produce at the right time and price.
This demonstrates that risk management cannot begin only after damage has occurred. Compensation and loss assessments remain necessary, but the recurrence of these risks requires a system capable of anticipating them and reducing their impact before they become crises threatening farmers’ incomes and the continuity of production.
Modern agricultural risk management, he said, is increasingly focused on early planning and the use of insurance, emergency financing, early warning systems, data and technology.
The foundations of this approach have begun to emerge in Jordan through the development of risk-management tools and the establishment of the Mutual Fund for Reducing Agricultural Risks, alongside calls for stronger integration with insurance, digitalization, and improved forecasting and assessment mechanisms.
Agricultural resilience does not mean preventing every risk, which is impossible, but rather reducing its impact and strengthening the sector’s ability to confront it.
Khreissat added that this requires the development of agricultural data and early warning systems through digital platforms connected to satellite data and meteorological stations. These systems can alert farmers in advance to frost waves, extreme heat and climate changes, reducing losses by up to 40%.
It also requires expanding the use of modern technologies, including water harvesting, protected agriculture and hydroponics. Actual data have shown that expanding the use of plastic greenhouses and protected farming facilities has helped improve water-use efficiency by between 30% and 50% compared with open-field agriculture, while also doubling productivity.
The use of crop varieties better able to withstand drought, heat and salinity is also important.
To address marketing challenges and crop surpluses, Khreissat highlighted the importance of introducing contract farming arrangements between farmers and food-processing companies, central markets and exporters. Such agreements can reduce seasonal losses by establishing quantities, specifications and prices in advance.
Digital transformation and supply-chain development can also connect farmers directly with markets, track agricultural products and reduce losses throughout cooling, storage and transportation chains.
He further emphasized the importance of soil health management and integrated pest control. This includes conducting precise laboratory soil analyses before each growing season and using drones and spectral imaging to detect pests at an early stage, before they spread. Such measures can reduce reliance on pesticides and protect the environment.
Farmers also need more effective financing and insurance instruments, better storage, cooling and marketing infrastructure, as well as clear information about demand, prices, export opportunities and expected production. This would help ensure that planting decisions are more closely aligned with market needs.
Khreissat also highlighted the importance of connecting scientific knowledge with practical agricultural applications. Jordan has universities, research centers and scientific expertise, alongside farmers with practical experience and a private sector capable of developing solutions and technologies.
The real value of this system, he explained, emerges when these parties work together to address practical challenges such as improving water-use efficiency, reducing waste, detecting pests early, and enhancing production and marketing.
Scientific research should not end with the publication of a study, just as farmers’ problems should not remain disconnected from researchers and innovators. The closer scientific knowledge gets to the fields, the greater the sector’s ability to prevent risks, adapt and make more accurate decisions.
Adopting Engineering-Based Measures
Agricultural and development researcher and expert Dr. Nabil Bani Hani stressed that confronting natural disasters such as hailstorms and powerful winds requires decisive engineering and physical measures to protect infrastructure and vulnerable crops.
He said a priority should be the installation of durable anti-hail protection nets over orchards and high-value crops to absorb impacts and prevent damage to fruit and branches. Establishing natural or artificial windbreaks is also important to reduce the intensity of storms.
He added that agricultural drainage network engineering plays a vital role in directing heavy rainfall and floodwater away from tree roots, protecting them from waterlogging and root rot.
At the field level, Bani Hani explained that sound agricultural practices play a central role in strengthening plants’ resistance and their ability to withstand climate shocks and recover quickly.
These practices include carefully planned fertilization programmes focusing on potassium and calcium to strengthen cell walls and increase the firmness of fruit and leaves against direct mechanical impacts.
They also include regular and professional pruning to remove weak branches, as well as improving the biological properties of soil through the addition of organic matter to support root health and stability.
On the technical and institutional front, Bani Hani said reliance on early warning systems and small-scale agricultural weather stations has become an urgent necessity for accurately detecting sudden weather changes.
Such technologies enable farmers to take immediate preventive measures before storms occur, reducing potential losses to the lowest possible level.
These technical efforts must be integrated with an economic safety system through the activation of mutual support funds and agricultural insurance schemes, providing a compensation safety net that protects agricultural investments and ensures the continuity of production.
