Weekly Progress Report April 1st - May 10th, 2012

The project's primary focus is on improving the production and export of fresh herbs and dates. Key stakeholders, including farmers, entrepreneurs, and industry associations, are being engaged to facilitate dialogue and cooperation. Fresh herb and date production is gaining momentum, with strategic implications for the future. The agribusiness team is gaining exposure to new stakeholders, field experiments, and workshops on new farming technologies. Ongoing activities include supporting growers with good supply chain management, marketing agreements, and upcoming season planting plans. The team is also reviewing opportunities to upgrade production to meet international standards and address global gaps. Sbaih Dates Co., a prominent date producer, has been identified as a potential partner or producer. The company, led by entrepreneur Ra'ef Daraghmeh, has been exporting dates to the US-based Ziad brothers Co. since 2010. The company's production is divided between exports and the local market, with approximately 180 tons exported to the US and 80 tons sold locally. Agripal Company, a Jordan Valley-based firm, is exploring options to leverage waste from crops, which could be used to feed animals or processed for export markets. The company is also upgrading fresh herb farms to comply with USDA-APHIS regulations by implementing integrated pest management techniques. Key findings from the company's research include the potential for new solutions to alleviate soil and water salinity using a "Magnetic Water Treatment Plant." Fasyel Grape Farm, a new experimental farm in the Jordan Valley, is cultivating variety SBS Seedless Grapes on 30 dunums (7.5 acres) of land. The farm expects to harvest 25 tons of grapes, primarily for the local market, with samples sent to Grape Packers in the UK. Future expansion plans include increasing the farm's size to 120 dunums (30 acres) in the next few years. Research on olive fruit fly control has been conducted in Sanerya Village, Qalqilya, over a four-year period. The experiment, which used colored and pheromone traps, has shown that these methods can effectively control olive fruit flies, leading to increased productivities and high-quality olive oil. Field visits to olive oil farms have also demonstrated the effectiveness of supplemental irrigation and organic fertilizers in increasing oil production by 280% compared to traditional practices. The Experimental field of MERC Waste Water Project, located in Qalqilya, has been irrigating olive trees with treated waste water for over five years. The findings suggest that productivity has increased by 60% after being irrigated with treated sewage water. However, the trees have seen an increase of 10% in fruit flies, which may reduce the overall quality of olive oil. Germplasm Propagation Experiment, conducted in Al-Zawyah Village/Qaqilya, has resulted in the growth of 400 olive plantlets after 20 months of nursery propagation. These plantlets are the genetic material source of 400 old Nabali trees located in different locations throughout the West Bank. The mother trees have been genetically and morphologically characterized to identify distinctive genetic and phenotypic features related to geographical and environmental parameters. This information can be used to trace back the olive oil to its geographical location and genetic characteristics.