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Conserving water, boosting incomes in Jordan’s Yarmouk valley
Jordan is a chronically water-scarce country, and less than five per cent of the land is arable. For farmers, little or no rainfall means severely reduced cultivation and production – and increased hunger and poverty. Those who find other ways to supplement their incomes generally earn very little. To address these challenges, an IFAD-supported project provided farmers with technical and financial assistance to promote soil and water conservation and boost agricultural production. It also helped more than 800 women develop small-scale business enterprises to increase family incomes.
About 20 per cent of Jordanians live in rural areas where poverty is more prevalent than in urban areas – approximately 19 per cent of the rural population is classified as poor. Because of the arid nature of the land, many poor rural people cannot grow enough crops to feed themselves and their families. Regular drought exacerbates the situation. During the drought of 1999-2000, wheat production dropped from 70,000 tonnes to just 9,000 tonnes, falling disastrously short of the country’s yearly demand for about 650,000 tonnes. Although agriculture remains a critical livelihood source for nomads, smallholder farmers and even those who do not own land, poor rural households have reduced their dependence on it due to chronic water shortages and deteriorating natural resources, reduced fodder subsidies and diminished livestock holdings. There are serious concerns that increased climate variability will aggravate the situation by further diminishing water availability, bringing about additional threats to health, food security, productivity and human security. Jordan’s ability to adapt to increased water scarcity induced by climate change will be crucial to sustaining its human development achievements and growth. Canals improve water distribution The IFAD-supported Yarmouk Agricultural Resources Development Project was launched in 2000. The project has supported almost 3,000 poor farming households by providing technical and financial assistance to promote soil and water conservation measures and improve agricultural production. Khaled Hamed Mutlaq Al-Bis, known as ‘Abu Ihab’, is a 55–year-old smallholder farmer. He grows pomegranates on a narrow strip of farmland known as Ain Al-Ghadir in Jordan’s northern Yarmouk valley. The pomegranate trees on his three-hectare farm were suffering from increasing water scarcity and decreasing productivity when the IFAD-supported project was launched in 2000. “Now the situation is entirely different,” says Abu Ihab. “My production has more than doubled and so did my sales of fresh fruits and pomegranate syrup.” Through technical support and microfinance services for soil and water conservation activities, the project has helped more than 2,600 resource-poor farming families improve their production, incomes and food security. In this area alone, several water springs, including some that had completely dried up, were rehabilitated and linked to reservoirs and a network of downstream water canals, benefiting 618 farming families. Under a first phase, the project built about 7,830 metres of canals through which water flows from a reservoir at the water source to plots belonging to farmers with water-sharing rights. The canals connect three water springs that pass through farming plots in the narrow valley where Abu Ihab and his wife and 10 children eke out a living. More canals are under construction in this area and others covered by the project. Before the start of the project, much of the water from two springs that pass through his land was absorbed before it reached Abu Ihab’s field. He and his family used to spend three days a week collecting water to irrigate his crops. Now, thanks to the cement canals, his water use and that of his neighbours has increased by 80 per cent. In addition, he only needs to dedicate one day, instead of three days for irrigation. He now has more time to dedicate to making and packaging syrup and selling both fresh fruits and syrup in the local markets. “My annual income from this land has increased from JOD2,000 (about US$2,820) before the project to more than JOD5,500 now,” he says. Dairy business benefits community The success of the women’s income-generation component of the Yarmouk project is complementing the major achievements of other components in enhancing food security, raising incomes, arresting environmental degradation, restoring soil fertility and increasing the rational use of water resources in the project area. Aida Kanaan is one of more than 800 poor rural women who have received microcredit to develop small-scale business enterprises from the project. “Our cheese and yogurt products are being sold in Amman and have even been taken by travellers to Italy,” says Aida, a 50-year-old-dairy producer in the village of Samar in Jordan’s northern Bani Kanana district. Aida and her retired husband Ismael are now running a flourishing business, making and selling cheese, yogurt, butter, cream, ghee and jameed (dried yogurt). They have their own small milk-processing workshop where they produce and package their dairy products in strict observance of the sanitary and quality standards set by Jordan’s Ministry of Health. With the help of their two sons and their daughter, they run two shops where they sell their products directly to customers. They also have contracts with supply-chain dealers who buy and re-sell the products to retail stores in the province of Irbid and in Amman. “We are not rich, but we are no longer poor,” Aida says. The family was totally dependent on Ismael’s meagre pension and Aida’s small home-made cheese-making efforts, when in 2001 she decided to join a group set up by the Yarmouk project and benefit from the microfinance opportunities it offered. With a loan of JOD2,000 (about US$2,820) from the Agricultural Credit Corporation (ACC), which extends microfinance under the project’s income-generation activities, she was able to start buying milk and making cheese and yogurt at her rented house. She then sold her products to neighbours and in the local marketplace. With her increasing profit, Aida managed to repay her loan in monthly instalments of about JOD100 over three years. At the same time, her household income increased by 50 per cent. As the number of customers grew and her profit became regular and consistent, Aida decided to move her milk-processing activity to a rented workshop. Given her initial success, she borrowed JOD3,000 from the ACC in 2006 to help cover the high cost of processing equipment and packaging materials, and to meet production standards. She also received training on processing techniques. Aida says Ministry of Health officials regularly visited her workshop, taking samples of her products for testing in state laboratories to ensure that all hygienic and quality standards for national-level commercialization were respected. Aida has become a community food supplier and a significant contributor to local economic growth. This has encouraged other rural women in the area to use microfinance as a way out of poverty to a more prosperous future. Beekeeping enterprise sweetens family life Sahira Obeidat, a 35-year-old honey producer, is one of the local women replicating Aida’s success story. In 2004, she received an ACC loan of JOD1,000 to launch her own small business. Choosing the Islamic banking system, under which borrowers do not directly receive cash loans and are not charged a monthly interest fee, Sahira purchased 10 beehives. The ACC paid the vendor for the beehives directly. Sahira was able set up the new beehives at her family’s olive farm and to start a successful beekeeping activity with the help of her family. “With my first ten beehives, I produced about 100 kilograms of honey in the first year,” she says. “I sold my first season’s honey for JOD10 per kilogram, earning almost JOD900.” With a four-year loan, repayable in monthly instalments of JOD28, including a profit surcharge equivalent to 3.5 per cent of the loan, Sahira settled half of her debt by 2006. But then she decided to expand the business and took out a second loan of JOD3,000 to purchase more beehives. “Now I have 35 beehives and produce enough to satisfy my family’s honey consumption, pay my debts and cover part of the household expenses,” she says. “As a military staff member, my husband earns only JOD110, so the money we earn from beekeeping is an important part of our income.”
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