Rain

The Middle Jordan Valley has been unseasonably wet in the last week enabling an additional 20 dunum, 5 acres, of barley to be planted without the use of irrigation.  Growing wheat or barley is a natural way to draw salts from topsoil.  When grown from rainfall salt in the soil is taken up into the stalks and heads of grain crops.  Barley in particular is hearty and can serve as a fodder even if enough moisture is not available to form grain.

AC4D staff removing lint from late planted crops

Due to heavy rains we have also been able to uncover the three sisters and zucchini sections early.  We should begin producing zucchini within the next couple of weeks.   

First Harvest

Today the trial and demo farm offered up its first produce.  We harvested significantly more than we anticipated and ran out of boxes for the eggplant before starting on the "Classic" eggplant which we will pick on Saturday.  We finished the day by treating neighbors to a very late and very well deserved lunch.

50 Boxes of "Jaguar" Eggplant

Lunch with our neighbors after harvesting

We were also privileged to host two groups of visitors today.  One is a pesticide company who is working with us to trial a benign form of pesticide on our land.  If effective it is good for us, good for our neighbors and good for the environment.  We also received a visit from representatives from Cattle for Christ International, an NGO founded to support beef cattle production among smallholders in the developing world. 

Members of Cattle for Christ International and the AC4D Project Manager

Food for the Future

Wise stewardship of land and water resources are at the heart of our ethos.  The reason for that is simple; today 6.6 billion (6,500,000,000) people count on farms and farmers to produce the food that sustains them.  Under current conditions approximately 1billion of those people live with food scarcity creating poverty and instability on every continent in the world.  By the year 2067, 53 years from now, the number of people on Earth will double to over 13 billion (13,000,000,000). (geography.com) Many of the readers of this article will be alive to see it.  What legacy will we leave our children?  A legacy of plenty, peace and stability or a legacy of scarcity, conflict and uncertainty.  Lets set an example for the next generation of agriculturalists that emphasizes cooperation, conservation and innovation leading to an abundance that empowers every segment of society.  

The alternative is bleak.  Large tracts of land, 1-2% of the worlds total irrigated area, are lost to salt loading every year.  (ICARDA)  If our generation the world over can't work together to reduce waste and enhance production - population growth and land productivity will conspire to create a future where a large segment of society grapples with hunger and where every one of us has to carry the weight of the cumulative effects of inflated food prices.      

 

AC4D Crops to Feed Refugees from Syria

Thanks to our Canadian partners the AC4D trial and demo farm has received an order for 200 boxes, 1800 to 2000kg, of fresh produce per week for 4 months.  This substantial order will provide relief to well over 100 Syrian refugee families (over 500 individuals) who are greatly in need of nutritional assistance during the winter months of December through March.

Syrian Refugees in Jordan

This type of order is a remarkable fit for our demonstration farm because we do not produce the large quantity of any one type of vegetable typically needed to make commercial farming financially viable.  Instead, we focused our efforts on trialing numerous crops in multiple varieties for the comparison benefit to those around us.  That decision is producing a wonderful variety of fruits and vegetables over a long period of time, exactly the type of production needed to provide well rounded nutrition over a long cold season when prices would normally be unattainably high.  

Below are examples of some of the 9 crops that we are producing currently.

Corn

Eggplant

Tomato

Green beans, zucchini, corn

Red Cabbage