The Dispossession of the Peasantry (ص 255)

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The Dispossession of the Peasantry (ص 255)

المحتوى

239
The total Arab cultivated area amounted to 6,972,000 dunums, of which
about 251,000 dunums or 3.6 percent was irrigated.” If we exclude the area of
unitrigated cereals, the irrigated area would rise to 15 percent of the total.
However, as opposed to the insignificant role that cereal cultivation had in
European settler agriculture, for the majority of Arab peasants, it was a major
source for subsistence in which most of the production was consumed by the
cultivators themselves.
Lacking any serious effort on the part of the government to develop
irrigation, the major obstacle to the small Arab peasant was the unaffordable costs
of irrigation. These costs varied according to the kind of soil, the crop involved,
and whether water was to be purchased or from the landowner’s own well. In the
latter case, the costs included the digging of the well, which varied according to
the terrain, the supply of pipes, and a diesel or electric pump. Both kinds had
similar operating costs, but electric pumps were used mostly. One estimate was
that the cost of electric power constituted 70 percent of the operating cost of the
pumps, which, at the time, was 50 to 70 percent more expensive than electric
power in California.7 These costs were simply beyond the means of the great
majority of Arab peasants.
These two figures are residuals of the total cultivated area of the country (see
Table 4.1.A) and total irrigated area, respectively, after deducting the respective
European areas.
*3Nathan et al., 170.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

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The Dispossession of the Peasantry

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المنشئ

Riyad Mousa

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