Jordan Chooses Algeria for Wheat Planting
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According to an official source, Jordan has recently floated bids to purchase 240,000 tons of Barley and Wheat to enhance its grain reserves. The Government announced a bid to purchase 120,000 tons of Barley. The deadline for the offer was March 15, according to the official source at the Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Supply. The proposed shipments of both Barley and Wheat are for August and September of this year, the source said.
The government also issued a bid to purchase 120,000 tons of Wheat, and the deadline for the offer was March 14. “We are very keen to keep our reserves of Wheat and Barley for a very long period. Currently, the Wheat reserve is enough for more than 12 months. We also have projects to increase our capacity of storage of Wheat and Barley,” the official said.
Jordan purchased 60,000 tons of Wheat in early March for the first half of August. The Kingdom also bought 50,000 tons of Barley for June of this year. Jordan imports about 95 percent of its Wheat and Barley from international markets, as domestic production does not exceed 5 percent of the country’s needs. According to the Trade Ministry, Jordan consumes 80,000 tons of Wheat and 60,000 tons of Barley monthly. As per AgFlow data, Romania shipped 1.3 million tons of Wheat to Jordan, followed by Ukraine (124,000 tons) in 2022.
A recent decision by the Jordanian Government to cooperate with Algeria to plant Wheat and Barley in the north African country for consumption in the Kingdom is a step in the right direction, according to experts. As per the Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Supply statement on Sunday, the effort would enable Jordan to meet some of its needs for the two commodities.
President of Jordan Environment Union Omar Shoshan hailed the decision as a “strategic move,” taking into consideration the high local consumption of these subsistence crops and the heavy burden on the Treasury due to importing them. “It is difficult to achieve food sufficiency from these strategic crops in Jordan because they need a lot of water, especially with the erratic rainfall pattern due to climate change and the dearth of arable land for these crops,” Shoshan added.
He explained that international cooperation, encompassing all technical and financial aspects, is necessary to mitigate the repercussions of climate change, especially in the water and agricultural sectors, which are the key pillars of food security. Economist Wajdi Makhamreh noted that the infrastructure for agriculture and irrigation in Algeria is very suitable for cultivating Wheat and Barley, and this move will enhance Jordan’s food security.
Algeria can be considered a second source in light of the challenges facing food supply chains because of the Russia-Ukraine crisis, Makhamreh added. At the same time, he stressed, “there must be more focus on investment in the agricultural sector and adaptation of agro technologies for climate change mitigation and enhancing food security.”
Jordan Wheat Production Trend
A recent study found that the trend of the change in land planted with Wheat in the area of Jordan is a decline in astray of the population growth, as well as the general trend of Wheat and Barley production, tends to decline. The study also found that the change in the Wheat and Barley consumption in Jordan is increasing. The study recommended adjusting the rates of the population growth to reduce the population increase and urban sprawl toward farmland, and the reduction of the labor migration from the countryside to the cities, as well as the use of modern technological methods in growing grain to increase the volume of production by raising the productivity rate per acre to compensate for the decline in the size of cultivated areas.
Other sources: JORDAN TIMES
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