Jericho, October 10, 2013:
Under the activities of the project titled “Developing a Simplified Decision Support System for Land and Water Management in the Central Jordan Valley to Enhance Food Security (West Bank and Jordan)”, the Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem (ARIJ) conducted a focus group workshop.
The focus group workshop aimed at bringing the main grassroots and stakeholders in the targeted area “Jericho and Al ’Auja” together through a participatory approach to bring their opinions, plans and needs into the project information system. This is essential towards developing a realistic and appropriate water-land development model based on the stakeholder’s needs and assessment. The workshop started with a brief presentation about the project followed by a group discussion among the participants about important and varied subjects such as: agricultural calendar, water resources, soil fertility, cropping system, extension services, property and marketing systems in the targeted area “Jericho and Al ’Auja”.
17 representatives of local, governmental organizations, private institutions and cooperative societies from Jericho and Al ‘Auja attended the workshop in a fruitful and informative discussion.
The project titled “Developing a Simplified Decision Support System for Land and Water Management in the Central Jordan Valley to Enhance Food Security (West Bank and Jordan)” is a joint project between the Applied Research Institute- Jerusalem (ARIJ) and the Royal Scientific Society (RSS), Jordan. The project aims at improving the livelihood of local communities, enhancing their food security, utilizing their water and land resources, and supporting their labor forces and marketing system. Having the agriculture sector as the predominant profession in the Central Jordan Valley region, planning and management of the sector is of great importance to the people in the Palestinian side (Jericho and Al ‘Auja) and the Jordanian side (Al-Shouneh Al-Janobeyeh) as well.