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Analysis of the agricultural situation in Azraq Basin
German-Jordanian Programme “Management of Water Resources”
Alfalfa is planted as cash crop, as a
plot in large and recent farms, or as
an inter crop between olive trees in
older and smaller farms.
V – Typology: description of
farming systems
Thanks to long interviews with farm
managers and owners, data could be
collected and cross checked during
the interviews, asking for the same
data in different ways. However,
validity and reliability of the data
collected during our field interviews
can still be questioned sometimes, as
it is difficult to get accurate data from
some farmers, especially regarding
profit and water consumption.
Nevertheless, as a result of the care
taken to evaluate the accuracy of
the data, the data collected can be
considered to be close to reality.
Structural costs (depreciation
reserve) have not been taken into
consideration in the calculation
of profit, since it was difficult to
get relevant data about initial
investments. Only production costs
are considered here to evaluate
profitability of the farms.
Some farms, considered as “special
cases” in their type, have not been
considered in the calculation of
averages. An example of these
“special cases” could be a farm
where, because of an inheritance
and waiting for a final compromise
between heirs, is just kept in a
surviving status, with minimal water
consumption, hence no production
and no income.
5.1. In Azraq region
Most people in Azraq started their
farm attracted by cheap land and
water, without real economical
feasibility study for their project,
nor environmental analysis (soil
and water test), and no real
knowledge about farming. Most
farms have been profitable until
beginning of 2000s, as labour
wages were cheap (70 JD/month
for an Egyptian worker compared
to 180 JD/month today), energy
was cheap (6 JD/barrel compared
to 120 JD/barrel today), production
inputs were cheap (fertilisers were
subsidised by MOA 40 ), whereas in
parallel the price of olive oil did
not increase according to inflation
(around 50 JD/tanakeh during the
last few years 41 ). But today, 60%
of farms make no profit (400 out
of 700 farms 42 ). Most farmers do
not have a real accountancy; their
objective is just to sustain the
farm. Small farms are often run
closely by the owner, while recent
big investment farms are run by
hired managers. Amongst these
recent investment farms, half of the
farmers that founded farms in Um
Al Masael did not originate from a
farming family and so do not have
a long experience in farming, but
still 90% have some knowledge
about farming. The minimum area
that a farm should be in order
to sustain a household would be
around 150 du 43 (considering a
farm planted mainly with olive
trees, with possible diversification
to grapes or fruit trees).
40 The strategy of MoA in the 1980s – 1990s was to support the agricultural sector, through subsidising fertilisers, renting
tractors at cheap price. Today, no more subsidies are provided to farmers, and support to agriculture does not seem to be a
priority anymore, despite 2009 having been declared to be “Year of Agriculture” by the King.
41 A tanakeh is equal to 16 kg of olive oil.
42 According to one of the farmers’ estimation.
43 According to a farmer living from the revenue of his farm only.