Organic Farming Initiative
Upon the
direction of Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah, JRF
launched its organic farming initiative to strengthen the
agricultural sector in Jordan. The objective of this
initiative is to develop a new and more sustainable approach
for agriculture by promoting organic farming in Jordan. The
organic farming initiative in its broad vision will help
develop the agricultural sector in Jordan. This initiative
will have many advantages including the production of
healthy food, the protection of Jordan’s biodiversity, soil
structure and microorganisms, and improvement of farmers
economic livelihood given that organic products are sold at
higher prices.
In the past
two years, JRF worked closely with all relevant stakeholders
and institutions resulting in succeeding to formulate
organic farming regulations and developing the most suitable
mechanisms to expand this sector in Jordan. Two
certification bodies were identified: (the Jordan Institute
for Standards and Metrology (JISM) and the Royal Scientific
Society (RSS)).
Since the beginning at the end of the year 2006, JRF secured
two funds to support this initiative.
-
A
$111,000 grant from the Spanish Agency for International
Cooperation through RESCATE aiming to establish the
legal framework of organic farming in Jordan.
-
A
$498,000 fund from MoPIC under the Conservation of
Medicinal and Herbal Plants Project to promote and
support implementing organic medicinal and herbal plant
farming.
As a result,
a three-phase plan has been developed by JRF to ensure the
sustainability of the organic farming initiative.
-
Phase I
aims to develop the legal framework for organic farming
and identify the institutional needs for such an
initiative to take place.
-
Phase II
works to promote organic farming through awareness
programs, capacity building workshops and the
show-casing of already-existing organic sites.
-
Phase
III to enhance the production and marketing of organic
products in addition to promoting the concept of organic
farming at the national level, amongst both relevant
governmental and non-governmental organizations.
The plan
emphasized that pilot projects will be particularly
important to ensure the success of this initiative as these
experimental organic sites will be used as a learning lab
before the rolling-out of organic farming at a national
scale. Therefore and marking the start of the
implementation, JRF selected Wadi Araba in 2008 as the first
project location for implementation due to its climate and
unpolluted soil for organic farming. As a result, 27 dunums
were cultivated with organic crops in addition to awarding
the organic farming certificate to the cooperative in Wadi
Araba (Qaa’ Al-Saideen coop) for complying with the organic
farming requirements making it the first co-op to get this
certificate in Jordan.
For more
information about the Organic Farming Initiative, please
refer to or contact…
