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60
Analysis of the agricultural situation in Azraq Basin
German-Jordanian Programme “Management of Water Resources”
7.4. Other projects
7.4.1. Compost plant project
Humus contributes to soil fertility
by retaining plant nutrients through
adsorption. It also acts as a binding
material in the soil, thus improving
soil structure. It is responsible
for making silt less susceptible
to erosion, and it increases the
water holding capacity and cation
exchange capacity of soil 78 . So
incorporating compost in soil
would reduce irrigation needs (as
water retention capacity increases)
and reduces groundwater pollution
by chemicals and heavy metals
(as cation will be adsorped by the
humic complex).
Based on one farmer’s experience,
incorporating compost in a 15 to 20
cm trench and planting vegetable
in it would save 70% of water;
incorporating humus at a 50 cm depth
under the tree, in a circle under the
canopy, would save up to 45 to 50%
water (as trees would develop deeper
roots and go to deeper and wetter
soil layers). This information should
be checked through conducting
scientific experiments.
Based on the concept of a nonprofit
company for services,
a system of gathering of farms
residues (residues from olive trees
pruning, weeds, animal manure, ..)
could be organised, and then residues
would be processed at the compost
factory. This small project (estimated
at 50000 JD - 100000 JD for land,
machines and technician) would
provide a local and cheap source of
environmentally friendly fertilisers.
It should in parallel include a
component of demonstration plot
and technical advice to farmers who
for most of them, trust chemical
fertilisers 79 .
7.4.2. Establish a cooperative
Despite the wide spread reluctance
of farmers to create any association
or cooperative, we support the idea
that a cooperative dealing with
trading of inputs, boxes, equipments
at fair price, renting equipments
belonging to the cooperative
(tractors, sprayers…), as well as
marketing olive products with a
better market knowledge (based on
a market information system) would
be a useful tool for farmers. But
while many small farmers in Azraq
are in favour of such organizations,
the managers/owners of the large
commercial farms in North Badia
and even in Azraq declared that they
would not participate in such an
institution (and these big farmers are
commonly leaders in such projects).
7.4.3. Income-generating
projects
We report here some projects that
have been mentioned by farmers
during our surveys. Even if they
78 Brandjes et al., 1996
79 A farmer even mentioned that he would not use compost on his farm as it is drying out the soil