Farmer leaders collect signatures to ‘refresh’ protest

AMMAN — The Jordan Valley Farmers Union is collecting signatures of the Jordan Valley’s over 20,000 farmers in another attempt to highlight the plight of farmers and the “down spiraling situation” of the agriculture sector, according to the union’s president, Adnan Khaddam.

The farmers have held regular sit-ins near the Parliament in protest of new taxes, but with not enough compromises from the government. The levies came at a time when land trade routes to the region and beyond were closed or involving hazards due to regional instability.   

The situation of the sector is worsening every year, Khaddam said, indicating that this is the worst season farmers have ever encountered by far.

“This is the worst agricultural season in the history of Jordan from the view point of farmers; the prices of basic vegetables are plummeting, the public’s purchasing power is weakening and exporting remains virtually non-existent,” Khaddam told The Jordan Times.

The said factors have left more than 22,000 farmers in debt to banks, agricultural companies and the Agricultural Credit Corporation, Khaddam claimed.

“Farmers are losing every year and are not making enough money to pay back loans to lenders, which has left hundreds of them on the wanted list,” he said.

He noted that the union has adopted an “honour petition”, which farmers are signing, planning to sent it to His Majesty King Abdullah.

“The time of courtesy is over; the King’s intervention is necessary now,” Khaddam said.

The sector leader said that “as policymakers demonstrate indifference to the need to sustain the agriculture sector, and as farmers continue to incur losses, the petition will call for ceasing cultivation to stop losses”.

“The real disaster will happen after the holy month of Ramadan ends, when most farmers will not be able to prepare their lands for cultivation,” Khaddam said.

Eight consecutive years of dwindling exports because of the war in Syria and the instability in Iraq have left farming in tatters, he said, noting that exports to the Arab Gulf countries are also weak and insufficient to salvage the situation.

“We have lost our social security,” Khaddam said.