GreenfieldCities Meets Rare Farmer Cooperative in Jordan

 

A few kilometers from the Syrian border, in a small village called Al-Mkyfta in Mafraq region, GreenfieldCities has met farmers of “Hands of Badya”, one of the few farmer cooperatives in Jordan. The purpose of the meeting was to learn from the farmers about the challenges and opportunities of their cooperative in relation to the agricultural sector in Jordan.

The plans of GreenfieldCities to establish a cooperative around a farmer field school at the Mafraq campus were welcomed with much interest by the farmers. They expressed the need for access to new markets and more advanced technology to increase production and reach higher quality level.

The farmer field school, as part of a food value chain on the campus, aims to equip farmers within the cooperative with technical knowledge, skills and inputs to help them compete on costs and quality in the regional and international market. The farmers told that this will help many poor families from Jordan and Syria to become financially more secure.

After the discussion, GreenfieldCities staff went to the field to see how the farmers of the cooperative grow tomatoes, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and how they process dried tomatoes. The cooperative makes use of hydroponics to irrigate their crops, and expressed their satisfaction with the system as it saves them a lot of water and increases their production levels as well as quality levels.