Agricultural Development in the West Bank (ص 35)

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Agricultural Development in the West Bank (ص 35)

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my
rofound constraints
2 of agriculture on West Bank hills.
ity
topography requires vast
i fa
Reclaiming land 0: - ch are
(often exceedi
ge but yield very 10
ing JD 100 per donum), whi
capital outlays
y difficult t0 rai
tand is reclaimed
and draught animals, both of
w financial
mot onl} |
cultivation practices
returns. Even when
tensive use of labour
require int
This problem is
which are increasingly expensive inputs.
compounded by the inadequate anount of research aimed
further
¢ of technology which are specifically
at adapting or devising forms
suited for West Bank topography.
4. Armajor constraint ensuing from rough topography is the
difficulty of constructing workable agricultural roads
connecting farns with asphalted highways. This has complicated
the process of modernizing production techniques and created
a nunber of iaportant marketing problems. The construction of
agricultural roads is stalled by inadequate funding and implicit
official opposition,
Given the rigidity of West Bank topographic problems, and
considering the wilnerability of "deserted" land to Israeli
cout hth
‘cmisttion, developoent planners will have to re~orient their
rh
priorities in the direction of more extensive exploitati f
lon 0
land resources,
This ati ttedly, is one of the basic premises
for the present Tesearch,
Land ownership
The average shz0 of & farm rolding 4s an important factor fi
“atermining {ts operations *£ficlency
Y.
Of this relation, The magnitude and direction
Pomever, {8 rot always
clear. While there is
s developed
anple evidence to indicate that larger farm size in le
countries often leads to lower productivity,’ the converse holds
true when the size of holdings gets too small. The definition of
optimal size ina country, even as small as the West Bank, requires
localized research involving a number of technical, economic and
social attributes. In this section we shall only explore the
basic features of land ownership and size of holdings.
Land ownership in the West Bank, as well as in most countries of
the Middle East, is beset with two conflicting problems, feudal-
size ownerships and excessive fraguentation. Averaging on the
country as a whole, the size of holding in the West Bank is less
‘than 38 donums.” This estimate is too crude, as it conceals wide
differences in land quality and extreme variations in size of
holdings.
Feudal land ownership had affected Palestine on a scale not much
different from the other countries in the region under Ottoman
rule for about four centuries. Due to a mixture of factors
involving extreme poverty and Ottoman land bribes to favoured
leaders and proteges (most of whom were Syrians and Lebanese)»
land ownership in Palestine developed along pronounced classical
feudal patterns. By the turn of the century there were six
families in Palestine who owned 23 percent of all cultivated land,
while there were 16,910 families who owned only 6 percent of it?
1. Micheal P Mazur, Economic Growth and Devels in Jordan
(London: Croom Helm, 1979), p 6-
2. f tion 1967, op cit, Publication No 2, p XV.
3. A Atmiri, Agricultural and Industrial Deve t_in Palestine
1900-70, (Beirut: PLO Research Centre, 1974), p 53.

هو جزء من

Agricultural Development in the West Bank

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١٩٨٢

المنشئ

Hisham Masoud Awartani

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