Northern Jordan Valley — In the Northern Jordan Valley District of Irbid Governorate, training small-business owners and entrepreneurs in preparing economic feasibility studies is emerging as a key step toward ensuring the planned use of available resources, improving business success rates and supporting long-term sustainability. This is particularly important in agricultural areas, where opportunities exist to establish productive businesses linked to the agricultural sector and improve rural household incomes.
اضافة اعلان
In this context, the Projects Management Directorate at the Ministry of Agriculture, in coordination with the Northern Jordan Valley Agriculture Directorate, held a training course on preparing economic feasibility studies for small businesses at the Irbid Agriculture Directorate. The course was attended by a number of small-business owners, entrepreneurs and members of the local community.
Engineer Lamia Salah Abu Sihyoun, head of the Projects, Rural Development and Women’s Empowerment Section at the Northern Jordan Valley Agriculture Directorate, participated in the course as part of efforts to strengthen business owners’ capabilities and develop their economic planning skills, helping them turn ideas into productive businesses that can be implemented and sustained.
The course aimed to train participants in preparing economic feasibility studies by introducing methods for calculating costs, revenues and expected profits, assessing market needs, and evaluating business prospects before implementation. It also covered identifying strengths, weaknesses and potential risks to help business owners make informed investment decisions.
Developing small businesses
The Jordan Valley is one of the Kingdom’s important agricultural regions, with climatic conditions suitable for growing a wide range of crops, particularly citrus fruits and vegetables, as well as grains, bananas and dates. Agriculture is therefore a major source of economic activity and employment in the area.
The agricultural area in the Northern Jordan Valley District covers approximately 118,000 dunums, including 66,000 dunums planted with citrus fruits, 34,000 dunums with vegetables, and 12,000 dunums with wheat and barley. Bananas and date palms each account for around 3,000 dunums.
These figures reflect the scale of agricultural activity in the district and the importance of using local agricultural products to develop small businesses and productive initiatives that respond to local market needs. Potential areas include food processing, packaging, product marketing and services that support the agricultural sector.
Such activities also offer entrepreneurs opportunities to develop businesses that make use of available resources and add economic value to agricultural products rather than selling them only in their raw form. However, costs, markets and competitiveness must be carefully assessed before implementation.
Small-business owners say training in preparing economic feasibility studies is an important step in helping them understand expected costs and revenues, identify their businesses’ needs and assess risks before deciding to expand or invest.
They added that feasibility studies allow them to evaluate their ideas practically by identifying required capital, calculating production and operating costs, estimating expected revenues and profits, and studying the market, target customers and competitors.
They also stressed that these steps help reduce financial risks and strengthen business owners’ ability to address challenges during the establishment and operation stages. Feasibility studies can also help identify strengths and weaknesses and select activities that best match their capabilities and market needs.
They noted that advance planning is particularly important for agricultural businesses because production is affected by several factors, including the cost of production inputs, irrigation water availability, climate change, price fluctuations, and production and marketing schedules.
Making more informed decisions
Alia Al-Bashtawi, an agricultural business owner, said that combining economic knowledge with practical experience helps people make more accurate decisions, particularly amid rising agricultural production costs, fluctuating product prices and changing market requirements. These conditions call for advance planning that balances expenses against expected returns.
Al-Bashtawi stressed the importance of including practical exercises tailored to the types of businesses operating in the area. This would enable participants to prepare feasibility studies for their own businesses, identify financing needs, explore marketing opportunities and learn how to manage available resources efficiently.
Farmer Ali Al-Hamad said the courses are particularly important given the need to create new economic opportunities in rural areas. Feasibility studies help business owners identify their financial and operational needs, understand demand for their products, estimate costs and revenues, and develop clear plans to manage and expand their businesses.
Engineer Mohammad Al-Naim, director of agriculture in the Northern Jordan Valley District, said an accurate feasibility study helps agricultural business owners better estimate their needs, choose suitable production and marketing times, and assess opportunities to add value to crops. This can improve the prospects for business continuity and economic returns.
Farmers are calling for these training programmes to continue and expand to include small-business owners, women and young people seeking to launch productive ventures. They also want technical guidance and follow-up support after the training ends, helping participants turn what they have learned into practical steps that sustain their businesses and provide income for rural households.
Source: Al-Ghad.
