With 27 percent arable land and no permanent crops, the West Bank and Gaza suffer from periodic food insecurity. Using proceeds derived from the monetization of commodity donated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, ACDI/VOCA funds drought relief and agricultural training activities for Palestinian farmers and pastoralists.
The ACDI/VOCA program in the West Bank and Gaza works with agricultural communities to mitigate the devastating effects of recent drought and reduce the risk of future drought loss. Under the project, the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) distributed emergency coupon subsidies and feed. From November 2001 to January 2002, the ministry distributed a total of 13,453 out of 13,582 subsidy coupons, supporting 912,000 sheep and goats in 12 districts. ACDI/VOCA reimbursed feed/fodder suppliers for 13,303 coupons totaling approximately $1.2 million. The feed subsidy program also served to strengthen cooperation between the extension service and MOA district offices, and provided economic stimulus to the livestock sector.
ACDI/VOCA is also working with at-risk agricultural communities to improve local community preparedness and response capability to drought events through the build-up of water catchment and collection structures, improved community awareness and water conservation education. To build capacity among rural inhabitants to better manage scarce water resources, PARC held training workshops for women, as well as students on water awareness and conservation, benefiting 1,098 participants. PHG held 60 workshops and conducted 49 home visits for 500 women, visited 27 schools to conduct awareness campaigns for 450 male and 455 female youth and held 20 workshops benefiting 130 men. These training workshops complement the building of water catchment structures in many of the localities where rainwater harvesting is carried out and an important source of water for irrigation.
In Gaza, ACDI/VOCA worked with World Vision to complete the construction of 36 agricultural ponds, and also led in projects to rehabilitate wells and conduct training workshops covering the following topics:
- strategies for reducing water consumption,
- maintenance of irrigation networks,
- water efficient irrigation systems and
- crop diversification
Alex Gebrehiwot
agebrehiwot@acdivoca.org
Feb 2001 - Dec 2001
