The Dispossession of the Peasantry (ص 239)

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The Dispossession of the Peasantry (ص 239)

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223
easier by the favorable climatic conditions for poultry raising in all areas of
Palestine. In addition, the extensive raising of poultry required little or no cost as
the flocks, mostly less than ten in number (in other cases between 20 to 50),
roamed around the house and fed on whatever they found there. It also seems that
here, unlike its other undertakings, government efforts helped in yielding positive
results. These efforts involved the provision, at low prices, of pedigree-hatching
eggs and breeding birds.'*' The low prices are not specified, but it is safe to
assume that peasants who were in serious debt had no cash money to benefit from
this government program, especially in the 1930s when it was undertaken. No
figures are available on the amounts or percentages of eggs or poultry marketed,
but it is obvious that it varied according to the number of birds owned by the
family and the surplus available after its own consumption. However, given that
flocks owned were mostly of ten or less, it does not appear that the surplus after
consumption was substantial for the majority of peasants. This would be different
for families that owned between twenty and fifty birds (i.e., they did have a
surplus that was sold on the market).
It also appears that intensive methods of egg production were carried out by
some Palestinian Arabs. It is not known who exactly these people were, but it may
be some wealthy landowners, urban dwellers, or merchants who could afford its
expenses, and certainly not any “average” Palestinian peasant. There is only one
'1Brown, “Agriculture,” 165.
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The Dispossession of the Peasantry

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المنشئ

Riyad Mousa

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