Jordan: Jordan’s government will buy barley from local farmers at prices higher than international market

As the poor productivity of the current season prompted many farmers not to save wheat and barley seeds for the next season, Jordan’s Ministry of Agriculture seeks help from neighbours, MENAFN-Jordan Times reported on August 26.

The Syrian and Yemeni governments promised to provide Jordan with a total of 2,000 tonnes of enhanced wheat seeds that suit the Kingdom's climate.

Jordan’s Minister of Agriculture Muzahim Muhaisin said the nation’s cereal sector needs 3,000 tonnes of wheat and 2,000 tonnes of barley for the coming season, adding that the ministry will cover the remaining quantity from the local cereal market.

In order to achieve self-sufficiency regarding the supply of wheat and barley, the minister said the sector needs to plant at least four million dunums, split in halves, with the two crops, expecting that around one million dunums would be planted with wheat and barley in the coming season.

He added that the government decided to buy wheat and barley from local farmers at prices higher than international market as another step to encourage more farmers to grow wheat and barley.

Furthermore, the ministry has provided free-of-charge farming services to cereal farmers, including ploughing and pesticide spraying.

A dunum is a unit of area used in the Ottoman Empire and still used, in various standardized versions, in many countries formerly part of the Ottoman Empire. In Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey it is 1,000 square metres (10,764 sq ft).

28 August, 2008