[News] Gaza farmers struggle with damaged agricultural land

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Gaza farmers struggle with damaged agricultural land

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10831.shtml
Report, The Electronic Intifada, 16 October 2009


GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IRIN) - Thousands of Gazan farmers 
may be unable to replant their crops during the region's main 
planting season in October due to agricultural land still damaged by 
the Israeli offensive at the start of the year, and a lack of 
agricultural materials like seeds and fertilizers, according to officials.

Half of Hatem Khubair's four hectares of farmland in Beit Lahiya, a 
city in the northern Gaza Strip, were destroyed during the Israeli 
offensive earlier this year.

"I can't afford to rehabilitate my land. The Israeli army bulldozed 
my crops -- onions and carrots -- and parked tanks on it, destroying 
the irrigation system," said Khubair.

"I lack money and materials," said Khubair, estimating the damage at 
$27,000, not including the production losses he and his family of 
eight faces this season.

Farmers are struggling to restore the 1,700 hectares of agricultural 
land damaged or destroyed during Israel's 23-day offensive which 
ended on 18 January 2009, according to a UN Development Programme 
(UNDP) report entitled "Damage Assessment in Gaza's Agricultural Sector."

The ruined crops include about 929 hectares of orchards and about 500 
hectares of vegetables, said the report.

Destruction of vegetation cover and compacting of soil by strikes and 
tank movements degraded the land, making it difficult to revegetate 
and vulnerable to becoming barren desert. About 5,200 farmers in Gaza 
-- out of about 10,000 -- were directly affected by the offensive, 
according to UNDP.

Livelihoods at risk

The entry of essential goods to Gaza via Israeli-controlled 
crossings, including agricultural materials, remains either 
restricted to limited quantities or denied, leaving Gazan farmers at 
risk of being unable to replant their crops this season due to the 
shortage of seeds, fertilizer, plastic sheeting and nets for 
greenhouses, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of 
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The livelihoods of an estimated 10,000 farming families -- some 
65,500 persons -- may be affected as a result, the report said.

Roughly two-thirds of Gaza's 1.5 million people are deemed food 
insecure, while unemployment hovers over 40 percent, said the UN Food 
and Agriculture Organization.

"FAO and other UN agencies are supplying farmers with materials like 
animal feed and gardening units for crop production," said FAO 
official Erminio Sacco in Jerusalem. "The winter cycle of harvesting 
is the most important to Gaza farm production."

According to Israeli military spokesperson Shlomo Dror, there is no 
shortage of agricultural materials in Gaza.

"We restrict the entry of all materials that can be used to 
manufacture explosives, which does not include seeds and fertilizer," 
said Dror. "Kerem Shalom [Gaza's only commercial crossing] is only 
capable of handling 100 trucks per day, limiting the amount of 
materials that can enter, and first priority is for humanitarian goods."

UNEP report

A recent report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) on 
environmental conditions in Gaza following the Israeli offensive, 
estimated that 17 percent of cultivated land, including orchards and 
greenhouses, was damaged or destroyed.

The report estimates the costs -- in terms of damage to farmers' 
livelihoods as a result of damage and contamination of agricultural 
land, alongside reconstruction, including ensuring the land is safe 
to re-plant -- at around $11 million.

Fragile soils

Gaza farmers are facing the challenge of trying to restore their lost 
agricultural production in a region surrounded by sand dunes and with 
fragile soils.

With the support of the Dutch government, local non-governmental 
organization (NGO) Agricultural Development Association (PARC-Gaza) 
launched several projects in August to help affected farmers, said 
Thijs Debeij, second secretary of the Representative Office of the 
Netherlands to the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah.

"Only 25 percent of the agricultural land damaged or destroyed during 
the war has been rehabilitated by local NGOs and UN agencies," said 
PARC director Ahmed Sourani.

FAO estimated total losses to the Gaza agriculture community as a 
result of the offensive at $268 million, including $180 million in 
direct damage and $86 million in projected losses.

This item comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian news and 
information service, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the 
United Nations or its agencies. All IRIN material may be reposted or 
reprinted free-of-charge; refer to the 
<http://www.irinnews.org/copyright.aspx>copyright page for conditions 
of use. IRIN is a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of 
Humanitarian Affairs.



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