Governorate”Within the “Cross Border Living Laboratories for Agroforestry(LIVINGAGRO) Project” activities, the National Agricultural Research Center(NARC) organized a field visit to a number of entrepreneurial projects in Ajloun Governorate. A team of NARC researchers, agricultural extensions, and farmers from the Ajloun and Jerash regions participated in this visit.
Dr Salam Ayoub, the project coordinator, said that the activity included two visits to a typical olive farm and to Tayba farm for medicinal plants, indicating that this activity is being implemented in the context of technology transfer and experience sharing, in addition to presenting modern agricultural techniques adapted.
During the visit, the participants expressed their appreciation and admiration of the techniques used in the Tayba organic farm in the Rajeb area, in which an integrated system for sustainable agriculture is used, with respect to sustaining plant cover, soil restoration, organic fertilization, and water harvesting techniques, composting, soil fertility increase, as well as, different cultures of citrus fruits, olive trees, in addition to cross-cutting aspects in the cultivation of some vegetables for the purpose of the sustainable ecosystem and higher economic returns.
With regards to the pilot olive farm in the al Al Sakhra area, the farm is characterized by using, plastic container techniques for an integrated irrigation system for olive trees during summer, while water harvesting technique has been used during the winter season. In addition to the use of smartphone apps for irrigation control. As well as adding complex fertilizers to irrigation water considering the critical growth stages of the trees and their needs for water and fertilizers.
Using such an integrated irrigation system on this farm for five years resulted in doubling the production of olive trees fruit and olive oil as well as limiting the alternate bearing phenomena, which consequently reflected positively on the farmer’s income.
