Agricultural Development in the West Bank (ص 79)

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عنوان

Agricultural Development in the West Bank (ص 79)

المحتوى

446
and that only one fifth of agri
x of cooperatives registered after
The numbe
the rest are frozen+
of which only 25 4
on non-agricultural cooperatives.
re agricultural, which
occupation is 101,
indicates greater emphasis
Evaluation of agricultural cooperatives
The performance of West Bank agricultural cooperatives is much more
modest than might be indicated by previous data. A recent study
has revealed that the nunber of active agricultural cooperatives
is in fact 30 encompassing 4222 member farmers, and that the
efficacy of their services is only minor in comparison with the
tasks laid before them.”
Counting on 500 West Bank villages and some 35000 workers employed
in farming, agricultural cooperatives cover less than 7 percent of
ll villages and reach 9 percent of agricultural workers. The
total number of full-time workers employed in this kind of
Cooperatives was 79.7 According to available data on the finance
Sf 22 active cooperatives, their average share capital was JD 9264,
ie, 3
JD 76 per member farmer.” In general, the Oxfam study portrays
a
Poor
Picture for the West Bank's agricultural cooperatives and
Senons:
trates that their role in developing agriculture is limited
&t the present,
and
Sthers are
more deep-
SS Tooted. Many researchers on the ratden
a coope:
* N Khraisheh and
Jon Ebe;
Jerusa’ Tsole
2 lem: a study sponsored ee an A griceltare tives,
Tid, p 27, yp ia.
cultural cooperatives are functional oa
147
movement in Jordan, including the present researcher, have come
to the conclusion that group work is not necessarily favourable
nor a particularly successful activity in local communities in the
West Bank. Rural folklore, as manifested for example in proverbs
and literature, casts suspicions on group work, while on the other
hand it explicitly favours individualistic approaches to solving
Problems. This conviction is further accentuated by the frequent
failures in cooperatives, which are caused mostly by conventional
Problems of poor management, shortage of finance, and governmental
interferance. It was not surprising therefore to notice that the
record of cooperatives prior to occupation contained far more
failures than successes, In contrast, private initiatives in
Agriculture (and in other lines of business) were far more
Successful.
The onset of occupation gave cooperatives a distinctive comparative
Advantage, in that cooperatives became the most practical option
Available to governments and organizations interested in reviving
the local productive base in the occupied territories. Alternative
°Ptions, which usually exist in a sovereign state, have simply
become inaccessible. On the other hand, occupation has generated
& new set of problems which are still more serious and less
Manageable than cooperatives had to cope with prior to occupation.
The crux of the new situation is that cooperatives, and ironically
in Compliance with Jordanian rules, are subject to thorough
°fficial control. By regarding itself as the legitimate heir of
the Government of Jordan, the Military Administration has been keen
exercising its “inherited” rights to their limit, Furthermore,
West Bank cooperatives have also to cope with other kinds of
SEE RIOT NE WNL

هو جزء من

Agricultural Development in the West Bank

تاريخ

١٩٨٢

المنشئ

Hisham Masoud Awartani

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