Al-Balqa, Nov. 18 (Petra) - The National Agricultural Research Center (NCAR) on Tuesday held an Agricultural Entrepreneurship and Innovation Fair as part of its celebrations for Global Entrepreneurship Week, gathering national institutions alongside researchers and experts from the agricultural sector.

This year’s fair featured 13 pioneering projects supported by the center’s Agricultural Innovation Incubator, showcasing advanced models of creative, technology-driven solutions across multiple agricultural fields.

Center Director General Ibrahim Rawashdeh said hosting the global entrepreneurship celebration on the center’s grounds carries significant meaning and reflects national efforts to promote a culture of innovation while empowering youth and women in the entrepreneurial sector. He stressed that agricultural entrepreneurship has become a national necessity rather than a passing initiative.

Rawashdeh said Jordan, under the leadership of His Majesty King Abdullah II, is steadily building an innovation-driven economy, citing the King’s continued emphasis on creating an entrepreneurial environment that enables young people to generate opportunities for themselves and their communities.

He noted that the center works to translate this vision into advanced entrepreneurial programs that support innovation and help transform ideas into scalable production projects.

Rawashdeh said the agricultural sector faces multiple challenges, including water scarcity, climate change and high production costs. But he said these obstacles also present opportunities to create technologies tailored to local conditions and to strengthen food and water security.

He highlighted the center’s scientific approach in recent years, which links research with entrepreneurship through its innovation incubator, opening the door for researchers, youth and farmers to develop their ideas into viable projects particularly in smart agriculture, hydroponics and vertical farming, water management, and the use of artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things in farming systems.

The 13 projects showcased at the fair, he said, represent successful examples of partnership between scientific research and entrepreneurial innovation, many of which have grown from early concepts into applicable models ready for expansion.

Rawashdeh underscored the center’s commitment to empowering rural women and university students through training, technical support and mentorship, adding that several success stories that emerged from the center have grown into productive projects that created jobs and improved the quality of Jordan’s agricultural products.

He said the Economic Modernization Vision launched by His Majesty provides an ambitious national framework that elevates the role of entrepreneurship across all sectors, noting that agriculture will be a pillar of the future economy through the integration of technology and innovation into production systems.

The event concluded with a tour of the exhibition’s pavilions, which featured the 13 entrepreneurial projects alongside agricultural innovations, rural industries and research-based products.

//Petra// AF