Holland Horti Support Jordan

Advance Consulting and partners work with small and medium sized horticultural enterprises to increase their competitiveness in export markets.

Holland Horti Support Jordan

Piloting and demonstrating low-cost, high-impact innovations with Jordanian vegetable farmers.

Holland Horti Support Jordan

We worked with 72 pilot farmers to: Increase productivity and profitability – Reduce water use – Produce healthy crops with no residues – Sustain employment & improve work conditions.

Holland Horti Support Jordan

Achieve impact at 580 Jordanian vegetable farms and develop recommendations for scaling up.

What we do

Advance Consulting implements a 3-year horticultural pilot project in Jordan. The project started in January 2019 and is financed by the Dutch government. Advance Consulting works with small and medium-sized horticulture farms in Jordan to improve their competitiveness. Together we test and demonstrate cost-effective innovations at vegetable farms in the Jordan Valley and the Highlands with the aim to:

Increase productivity and profitability

Reduce water use

Produce healthy crops with no residues

Sustain employment and improve conditions of work

Pilot Activities

Together with experts from Wageningen University and Research 10 types of production improvement pilots have been set up and monitored. In total we carried out over 120 seasonal pilots, with 72 small and medium-sized horticultural farmers.

Knowledge Transfer

The outcomes of these pilots have been used to develop recommendations for scaling up sustainable and market-driven innovations in Jordan’s horticulture sector. Through field days, training events and publications we have informed growers and others interested in Jordan’s horticulture. The pilot project Holland Horti Support Jordan achieved impact at 580 Jordanian vegetable farms.

Pilot farmers

Farmers trained

Horticultural pilot types

Where we work

Holland Horti Support Jordan – Areas of project Activities

Holland Horti Support Jordan has activities in 4 main regions: Greater Amman, Jordan Valley, Northern Highlands and Suknah. Find out more by hovering over the green dots on the map.

Greater Amman Highlands
Farming in the Highlands around Amman is popular due to its strategic location: agricultural input supplies, the main domestic markets and the export houses are nearby. The climate in the Jordanian Highlands is characterised by cold winters (5 – 10°C) and hot dry summers (around 30°C). Water and land for farming are becoming scarce and expensive due to the rapid urbanization. Production periods for horticulture crops in this area are from around March until October.

Jordan Valley
Vegetable crops are grown on more than half of the arable land surface in the Jordan valley. The valley is known for its fertile soil and favourable climatological conditions in the Winter. Growers in Jordan Valley once had a unique competitive advantage for being able to continue growing crops during winter time. This position is now under pressure due to export limitations to the neighbouring countries of Syria and Iraq which also acted as a gateway to Europe and Russia. Now, there is also fierce competition during the winter months in the Gulf region due to an increase in the Gulf’s own production. Summer production in July and August is hardly possible due to the very high temperatures in Jordan Valley. In the last two decades some farmers switched to growing date palms in this area which has been relatively successful.

Northern Highlands Sukhnah Greater Amman Highlands Jordan Valley Move your mouse over the green regions on the map.

Northern Highlands
The Northern Highlands, around Mafraq, Ramtha and Irbid, was known for production of cereal crops since the Roman Empire. Rainfed agriculture has remained popular but horticultural open field production has gained in popularity in the last 10 years. From a market perspective, the export window has become more favourable than in the Jordan Valley because of the longer growing seasons. A limiting and concerning factor is the severe scarcity of groundwater in this area.

Sukhnah
Suknah is a small semi-Highlands area at the Zarqa river, therefore having access to water year round. It is only 1000 dunums (100 hectares) large and known for its potato production, citrus trees and lettuce, as well as other leafy crops. Sukhnah is less harsh in winter compared to other Highland areas in Jordan giving it slightly earlier production. The coverage by surrounding hills makes this region less dusty. These factors and the proximity to Amman make Sukhnah a good location for growing leafy crops.

Latest news

Meet the partner farmers

Naeem Abu Doush

Naeem Abu Doush

Mr. Naeem Abu Doush is very adept in motivating farmers in Jordan Valley for the innovations of the pilot project. He has hosted the third farmer training day on fertilization in Jordan Valley and he made sure that the attendance for this training was the largest yet....

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Yousef Abu Daie

Yousef Abu Daie

During the first farmer training in Jordan Valley, Mr. Yousef Abu Daie and his son were enthusiastic about the demonstration with the (leaf) blower for cost-effective pollination of tomato plants. They immediately went out and bought a blower to try out the...

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‘Sheikh’ Abdelrahman al Taweel

‘Sheikh’ Abdelrahman al Taweel

Having farmlands in the Northern Highlands and in Jordan Valley, Mr. Abdelrahman al Taweel is a farmer all year round. He is currently one of the few farmers in Jordan who is using bumble bees for pollination and trying out grafting for tomato plants. This showcases...

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Our Partners

Advance Consulting

Advance Consulting is a Dutch business advisory firm for investments and projects in emerging economies. It assists companies and advises government agencies and development organisations on sustainable business development. Advance Consulting has a local office in Amman, Jordan and is the project lead in Holland Horti Support Jordan, providing technical assistance, training for partner farmers and monitoring and evaluation activities

Wageningen Plant Research

Wageningen Plant Research (WPR) combines knowledge and expertise in all fields of plant sciences. With this, WPR offers new perspectives for sustainable agriculture to clients and partners from industry and governments to research institutes and universities. In this project, WPR provides support on data analysis, crop guidelines and agronomic best practices.

Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

The Embassy of the Netherlands is the main partner in Jordan. They are the linking pin between the different Dutch programmes on agriculture, water and education in Jordan and ensure close cooperation between activities.

RVO

The Netherlands Enterprise Agency improves opportunities for entrepreneurs, strengthens their position and helps them realise their international ambitions. RVO is the financing partner of the Holland Horti Support Jordan pilot project.