Jordan’s agri-sector needs to re-farm if kingdom is to bear fruit

Amidst programs designed to position Jordan at the heart of the Middle East’s communications and technology boom and attract ICT developers and investors to the country, Amman is proposing an overhaul to its small but vital agricultural sector. However, Jordan’s plan isn’t so much to work harder in the fields but to work smarter, identifying investment, development and export opportunities and providing training and technical support to primary producers so they can take advantage of these opportunities. On January 31, King Abdullah said that plans drawn up by the ministry of agriculture four years ago had to be acted on to revitalize what he described as a basic pillar of the economic, social and environmental development process of the country. However, while Jordan’s agriculture sector may be a pillar of the economy, it is a somewhat shaky column, seeing a 9.4% contraction in the past decade. Less than 5% of