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Farmers' verification of improved land-use alternatives in the transitional Badia of Jordan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2007

Feras M. Ziadat ,
Butros I. Hattar  and
Akram S. Baqain
Feras M. Ziadat*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Agriculture, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan.
Butros I. Hattar
Affiliation:
Faculty of Agriculture, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan.
Akram S. Baqain
Affiliation:
Faculty of Agriculture, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan.
*
*Corresponding author: [email protected]
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Abstract

Decisions on land-use sustainability are particularly critical in fragile semi-arid regions of the world, especially those involving the social factor: people and communities. Typical of such an area is the Middle East region, especially Jordan which is beset by climatic constraints. New land-use alternatives were introduced by the Jordan Arid Zone Productivity Project (JAZPP) to improve land productivity in the arid to semi-arid (transitional Badia) land in Jordan. These alternatives were verified within experimental stations under controlled conditions. Dissemination of these findings would be successful if they suit the needs and resources of farmers. Therefore, verification of the success of these techniques under a wide range of biophysical and socio-economic conditions was necessary to judge their suitability to the target area. Various interventions were implemented on 14 sites that represent different biophysical and socio-economic conditions over the study area. With close monitoring and follow-up, successful and encouraging results were reported during the first season, even with lower rainfall than average, suggesting that these techniques were biophysically suitable for the target area. During the second season, maintenance and guarding were assigned to the farmers. Seven out of the 14 sites failed for various reasons: multiownership regime, reluctance of farmers to adopt new land use and insufficient protection and/or guarding measures. The study highlighted the importance of the farmers' comments and discussion of their specific problems and needs. This helped to improve these interventions to suit the farmers' requirements and may be important in facilitating widespread adoption and sustainability of these new land-use alternatives in the Jordanian Badia as well as in other areas of similar environment.

Keywords

arid to semi-arid regionsland and water managementwater harvestingparticipatory approachland ownership
Type
Research Article
Information
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , December 2006 , pp. 207 - 215
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006

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