Lately, ministries seemed to march to the beat of their own
drums, especially in relation to investment, water, and agriculture. Promisingly,
though, Jordan’s priorities were set straight during a recent meeting His
Majesty King Abdullah had with the premier and the minister of agriculture to
discuss the highest item on Jordan’s agenda: sustainable agriculture and food
security.
اضافة اعلان
On August 21, King Abdullah renewed his directives
from 2020 to make agricultural revival and food security the government’s
topmost concern. Two years ago, public sector officials responded to the Royal
directives by talking to the Senate about ambitious plans to utilize arable
land to achieve food security and alleviate poverty and unemployment. Due to
pandemic fatigue, among other factors, this enthusiasm waned as new priorities
took hold of the current Cabinet’s agenda.
The King has now made it clear that Jordan’s path
forward should involve agricultural and food security policies that
“complement” each other, while “stressing the need for clarity on food security
requirements”, as reported by Jordan News.
His Majesty also directed the government to
rehabilitate state-owned lands across Jordan to accommodate a new wave of
people-centric agricultural projects. He made it clear that local communities
were the beating heart of the Kingdom’s food security and agricultural plans,
and urged officials to reach out to what could be seen as the country’s future
farmers in areas with agricultural potential, so as to encourage them to take
part in this new agri-food drive.
It might sound counterintuitive for a water-poor
country like Jordan to aim high with its agricultural program. But an older
generation of farmers has long held the belief that “more trees and vegetation
will bring the rain”, a perception that proved to be astonishingly true.
Those are the high-quality investors that Jordan needs to aim for, not the ones looking for cheap labor and a system that sanctions the unchecked abuse of our scarce water resources.
According to a
2021 paper by the National Intelligence Council in the US, “about 40 percent of
all rainfall over land originates from local plant transpiration and
evaporation”; in some regions the percentage is much higher. The paper also
says that the degradation of plant composition and density (due to urbanization
and desertification) “can have significant impacts on local weather and water
availability”.
The government now has one crucial task ahead of it,
and that is to come up with a map that identifies priority locations for
agricultural revival, along with the outreach programs it wishes to roll out to
engage the local communities living in those areas. This should result in a
large-scale national campaign that promises to reverse the damaging effects of
urbanization, all while breathing new life into Jordan’s moribund rural communities.
In 2020 and 2021, Jordan, like other countries, was
busy dealing with the aftermath of the pandemic. But with most of public life
back to normal, the government is now expected to shift to a higher gear to
make up for lost time as it sets its eyes on increasing Jordan’s ability to
absorb unforeseeable future shocks by achieving water and food security.
On Monday, Jordan announced its 2021–2030 National
Food Security Strategy. At the launch event, Prime Minister Bisher Al-Khasawneh
was quoted as saying: “Sustainable food security… (is) at the top of our
national, regional, and global priorities.”
Contrary to this, the government has shown absolute
tone deafness to Jordan’s severe water scarcity by furnishing the new
investment bill with a thorny article that authorizes a Cabinet-formed
incentives committee to give local and foreign investors discounts on their
water bills.
Moreover, the newly formed Ministry of Investment
has already met with potential investors from non-regional countries to entice
them to invest in sectors like agriculture, even though an investment strategy
is still not in place to guide its actions. The investment bill for 2022 needs
to be ratified by Parliament before the ministry can raise the curtain on its
investment plans, let alone go ahead with them.
Logically, once introduced, the new investment
strategy ought to complement the country’s four existing strategies for water,
sustainable agriculture, food security, and the eradication of poverty and
unemployment. But there are no guarantees that it will do so, especially since
ministries seldom consult with each other to manage their respective sectors.
In Europe, governments are known to introduce a
single coherent strategy, with cross-cutting themes like food security and
measures to reduce unemployment and offset climate change, all in one go.
In Jordan, it is a totally different story; each ministry acts like it were on a separate island, with the overall government being prone to short-lived fads. At the moment, foreign investment 'at any cost' seems to be the government’s newest approach.
If a (liberal) government wants to revive the
industrial sector, attention to water conservation, zero carbon emissions,
renewable energy, and the creation of new job opportunities for the lower and
middle classes will be incorporated into that sector’s objectives in a seamless
manner. Teams of researchers and policy makers will also toil to connect the
dots to produce a single harmonious strategy.
In Jordan, it is a totally different story; each
ministry acts like it were on a separate island, with the overall government
being prone to short-lived fads. At the moment, foreign investment “at any
cost” seems to be the government’s newest approach.
A case in point: the investment bill is dotted with
concessions to so-called “big investors”. These include giving them leeway to
contest new laws and regulations enacted within six years from their
designation as large-scale investors by a specialized committee. If one day a
future government decides to add new terms to the investment law that require
investors to recycle and conserve water, “big investors” will be able contest
those new articles by claiming that they affect their businesses negatively.
The government needs to understand that foreign investors
who come from Europe or regional countries with advanced laws, like the UAE,
are already accustomed to legislation that involves showing some respect for
environmental integrity and natural resources sustainability. Those are the
high-quality investors that Jordan needs to aim for, not the ones looking for
cheap labor and a system that sanctions the unchecked abuse of our scarce water
resources.
With climate change taking its toll on the country
and the planet, present and future governments simply have no other option but
to rise above their issues to achieve Jordan’s food and water security, and to
cultivate our near-extinct rural communities in a timely manner.
Ruba Saqr has reported on
the environment, worked in the public sector as a communications officer, and
served as managing editor of a business magazine, spokesperson for a
humanitarian INGO, and as head of a PR agency.
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