Improving water productivity in the field with farmers: Farmers Field Schools on water in Jordan

The North Jordan Valley (NJV) is located in the northwest of Jordan and it has a subtropical climate with warm winters and hot summers, with a mean annual rainfall of about 350 mm. The warm climate made the area an important agricultural area that mainly produces citrus. Vegetables (e.g., hot peppers, eggplants, okra and others) and other fruit trees (e.g., banana, grapes and date palm) are cultivated in the area as well. Water deficiency is evident in this area and the Jordan Valley Authority (JVA) adopted reduced water allocations (quotas) for farmers in NJV. For the local community in NJV, agriculture is the main employment sector and the main source of income. In addition to scarce water, the major challenges faced by farmers are the high prices of agricultural inputs and low yield prices. Producing more benefits with less water (increased water productivity) is one of the most strategic response to such challenges. Benefits can be either biophysical (yield, expressed in mass unit – kg), economical (returns, expressed in monetary terms – $) or even social when considering job created or dietary value.

The analysis of local crop production showed that there is a significant gap between the actual yields and the attainable yields. the reader will know more about FAO's farmer field schools (FFS), its methodology and implementation. in addition to Farming practices implemented through FFSs including the objective of the FFS for each practice, the method applied by the FFS in the demonstration field and the method applied by traditional farmers.