Agriculture Sector Of Palestine
The infrastructure of the Economy in Palestine is average and cannot be considered to be very good. However, in the recent years, there has been substantial growth in various sectors which has raised the economy to a certain level. The main sector which has contributed towards this growth is agriculture. West bank area of the Palestine has higher standard of economics as compared to other parts of the country. For long, the economy of Palestine has relied upon the channels in the country. The trade center (PalTrade) has a vision to develop Palestine such that it leads to stable growth (monetary wise) of the nation. As already mentioned, agriculture has become the leading sector in Palestine from last few years. As such, it contributes towards a major portion of gross domestic product of the country and provides livelihood to a major portion of the country's population. It has become the chief source of income for a majority of the people and it is divided into different parts - rain-fed cultivation and irrigated cultivation.
The agriculture zone in the Palestine shares the joint distinctiveness of both rain-fed farming and irrigated farming. Of these, rain - fed farming is more prominent (in terms of the total land occupied). Fruit tree cultivation is the key segment of production in plants and the main ones are grapevines, figs, almonds, citrus and olive. On the western bank of Palestine, grapevine is the second major fruit crop. Large areas of cultivable lands are covered with its trees. More than 30 different vegetables are grown here. The major crops grown include wheat and barley. Add to this the fact that agriculture here is mainly yearly and cyclic for both vegetables and grains.
Unfortunately, constraints such as water and land scarcity have limited the growth of agriculture in Palestine. Continuous wars and conflicts with neighboring countries like Israel, Palestine has lost major part of water and land sources. Initially, before occupation of Gaza Strip by Israel, the agriculture industry here had a very high growth rate.
Another important constraint for agriculture in Palestine is marketing of farm products and their distribution to local and other markets. For selling these products they have to take permissions from Israel authorities and transport of goods is also not easy. The areas of fields have decreased drastically from 85,000 hectares in 1966 to 45,000 hectares in 1994. This shows the effects of the conflict on Palestine economy. Apart from this, there is also a limitation on the usage of total water used which also limits the growth of agricultural sector.
A committee in called as "The Agriculture Relief Committee" is a leading a non-profit and non-governmental organization in Palestine and is largely involved in rural development. It also provides support and awareness services thus helping people grow their products and sell them in the market. Farmers start the process of sowing crops in the month of November when autumn rains are due and crops for summer are planted in the month of January.