Agricultural Development in the West Bank (ص 125)

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Agricultural Development in the West Bank (ص 125)

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238
- fully on a wide
requirements. Therefore they are grown successfully
i irrigation.
Tange of soils and topography, whether rainfed or under irriga
of soils
i iderable
As such, it is considered in principle a tree of conside
potential in the West Bank physical setting.
Though they have much in common, there are still important agronomic
and olives, most importantly the following:
Afferences between grapes
4 Vineyards come to commercial bearing much earlier after initial
Planting (three years versus eight).
>. They are also much less vulnerable to climatic abberrations and
© not display significant variations in output to any extent
COmarable with that of olives. This gives important economic
§dvantages to grape producers.
& Grapes are much easier to propagate, since that is done by
direct growing of cuttings taken during the growing season.
a, Grapes are mich more susceptible to insects and diseases
than Olives, and if inadequately protected, pest damage may go
Close to 100%.
A fundamental pre-requisite for establishing a commercial vineyard
in the Hebron hills is reclamation of desired land. This involves
Temoving bedrocks and constructing gently sloping terraces by
building retaining stone walls. This process has become very
“pensive, and the cost of development per donum is estimated
at Ip12s (see Table VII-7). The breakdown of this cost, however,
*eveals that about 90% of it goes to manual labour, mostly
“Ntributed by farm families themselves. However, there is
stl ample room for reducing the cost of land reclamation by
PYOvi ding machine services at more competive prices. As we shall
“tae in a later section, there is a strong case for subsidizing
the
©sts of land development.
239
Table (VI = 7)
Development costs of vineyards land
(JD per donum - Spring 1981)
Unit Price No of units Total cost
Bulldozers Hour Tol 3 21.3
Removing Stones Day 3.3 4 13.3
Wall construction Meter? 2.2 40 88.0
Levelling (by tractor) Hour 1.8 1 1.8
Total 124.4
Source: Farmers sampled during the course of this study.
After the land is prepared, vines are grown by direct planting of
“Uttings taken from desired varieties in the pruning season. The
Vineyard takes 3-4 years before it starts commercial production.
In the meantime the farmer has to provide such basic services as
Weed elimination (by repeated animal-ploughing) and pest control.
The farmer also has to decide on the method of rearing his vines,
Which Could be one of three: creeping, standing by poles, or
t :
Tellised on elevated wire frames.
Trellising of vineyards entails significant advantages to growers.
sd Virtue of more efficient cultural practices, productivity of
v:
ineyards increases by more than three-fold as compared with the
tr, ,
aditional creeping method.
There are only around 5000 donums of trellised vines at present
(about 4 percent of the total area). The only important constraint
for a Tore extensive expansion of trellising is its high initial
8truction costs, estimated at JD 130. If this problem is
er,
Tectively solved, then this is likely to accelerate trellising
On
“Much larger scale.

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Agricultural Development in the West Bank

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المنشئ

Hisham Masoud Awartani

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