AMMAN — The small
amount of rainfall and irregular precipitations so far in the cold season are compounding
the woes of
Jordanian farmers, who are already suffering from the consequences
of a bad 2021 season, according to farmers and their leaders.
اضافة اعلان
Some still hold
hope that the rain harvest will improve.
President of the
Farmers Union Mahmoud Al-Ouran said the amount of rainfall is below the
seasonal averages and rain is irregular, adding that the current rain season is
a continuation of last year's bad season.
Last
year’s drought and a series of extended heatwaves in the summer led to a
shortage of water resources and damage to crops, mainly rain-fed fruit trees, to
animal rearing and to bee farming.
Added
to that, the cost of agricultural input increased, due to more taxes and fees
levied by the government, and to the rising cost of these items in the
countries of origin.
A
Jordan Valley farmer, Suleiman Doujan, said the valley's farmers' situation
"is getting worse every day, due to the meager water resources and the
higher rates of salinity, which affected production. This is one of the worst
years in terms of water availability and production levels". As a result,
"the prices of vegetables and fruit will hike, and this is not a favorable
situation, not for farmers, nor to consumers."
A
government official diagnosed the situation with a more optimistic tone.
Director
of the Environment and Climate Change Department at the Agriculture Ministry
Jaafar Al-Widyan said it is too early to judge the rain season, which might
improve in the coming months. Besides, he added, the rainfall rates so far in
the season are at "satisfactory levels, relatively speaking".
He mentioned
the heavy rain witnessed in the southern part of the Kingdom, "which led
to water accumulation in dams, while the rain harvest in the north and central
Badia was within average levels".
He also said that crops presently grown by
farmers are doing fine and are up to expectations so far.
Meanwhile, Ad-Dustour said that
the Media and Communications manager at
Water Authority of Jordan, Omar Salameh, is attributing
the decline in quantities of surface water and the low dam storage rates to the
modest rainy seasons during the recent years in the Kingdom.
Salameh said on Sunday that Jordan has 14 dams
with a total storage capacity of 336.4 million cubic meters.
As a result of the great water challenges, the
decline in rainfall rates due to climatic changes and the burden of refugees,
the per capita share has decreased to about 80 cubic meters annually for all
uses.
The dean of the College of Sharia, Adnan
Al-Assaf, urged citizens to deal with water responsibly, as it is a precious
commodity that must be preserved.
Assaf praised the role of the
Ministry of Water
in communicating with the
University of Jordan and the German Agency for
International Cooperation in issuing awareness brochures, working on projects
that contribute to rationing water consumption and holding workshops that talk
about water conservation from an Islamic perspective.
The lecture are part of Ministry of Water and
Irrigation/Water Authority efforts to spread awareness among citizens, conserve
water, reduce water losses, reduce groundwater depletion, and ration water
consumption, especially in light of the scarcity of water resources and the
water challenges the country faces. He said that Islam instructs on water conservation
and prohibits wasting and spoiling it.
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