AMMAN - Traditional agricultural methods are no longer useful for Jordan and other countries of the region, and new technologies and policies are needed to feed their increasing populations, according to an international report discussed in Amman on Wednesday.
"Business as usual is no more an option," according to the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) report, which was initiated and approved by 59 countries in Johannesburg, South Africa, in April.
According to IAASTD officials, Jordan is "in the process of signing the report" as the government is waiting for the final copy to be issued in December before approval.
"We suppose that states which approved the report will address the challenges through development projects," IAASTD Coordinator Mustafa Guellouz told reporters in a press conference yesterday following a discussion of the report.
IAASTD was formed by the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organisation at the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002 to study "productivity and the impact of agricultural activities on the environment".
The April report evaluates "the point we have reached in utilising agricultural technology" in Jordan, said Nasri Haddad, a consultant at the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, which was sub-contracted for the part of the assessment that covers the Central and West Asia and North Africa region.
"Revenues of agriculture are very low" in these countries, Haddad told The Jordan Times on the sidelines of yesterday's press conference, adding that new technologies in the field would help "give farmers a fair share of their production and sustain resources at the same time".
Haddad cited biotechnology and genetic engineering as examples of possible technologies farmers could implement.
"For example, you need technologies to face climate change, so you can use genetic modification to produce plants that can cope with climate change."
"But technology alone is not enough," noted the university professor, explaining that it should be accompanied with an "enabling policy environment" in order to cope with a worldwide food crisis.
According to National Centre for Research and Agricultural Extension Director Faisal Awawdeh, the IAASTD report is "absolutely useful" for Jordan. He pointed out that the report's options were "general" and each country could benefit from it according to its own particularity.
"When you talk about water deficit and climate change, you are tackling inherent aspects of the Jordanian situation," he told The Jordan Times yesterday.
However, Awawdeh said the Kingdom still needed "laboratories and cooperation with universities" as well as funding in order to introduce genetic engineering, noting that biotechnology such as DNA fingerprinting was already utilised in Jordan.
Muna Hindeyeh, one of the authors of the report, lauded governmental measures regarding the water deficit, but expressed her pessimism, noting that "we are still in real trouble" in the Kingdom, which is classified as one of 10 poorest countries in terms of water.
Meanwhile, IAASTD Director Bob Watson sounded a note of caution, warning that "more environmental degradation" is expected if agricultural business continued as usual.
In a documentary screened at yesterday's event, he said this would lead to a "world nobody would want to inhabit".
By Thameen Kheetan
© Jordan Times 2008
