Amman, Sept. 14 (Petra) -- Israel’s war has devastated Gaza’s agricultural sector, with approximately 87.6 percent of agricultural land damaged and livestock and fish production sustaining losses of 85 to 90 percent, according to Bahaa Agha, Director of Policies and Planning at the Ministry of Agriculture in the Gaza Strip.
In a press statement Monday, Agha said the destruction has extended to agricultural soil, water wells, irrigation networks, and pipelines, severely undermining the sector’s ability to resume production.
Citing a recent Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) report, he said only about 3 percent of Gaza’s open agricultural land is safely accessible, equivalent to approximately 4,480 dunams of undamaged land.
About 2,240 dunams of greenhouses, or 16 percent of the total, are also accessible, he said, adding that the combined area of open farmland and greenhouses that is safely accessible and cultivated does not exceed 4 percent of Gaza’s total agricultural land.
More than 70 percent of agricultural land is now located in areas controlled by the Israeli occupation east of the so-called "Yellow Line," while restrictions on the entry of agricultural inputs, including fertilizers, seeds, seedlings, and pesticides, are further limiting production.
Agha said the shortage of inputs is hindering the resumption of agricultural activity and driving up the prices of agricultural products, which increasingly depend on imported materials and produce and have become unaffordable for large segments of the population.
He described the autumn planting season as particularly important because it depends on rainfall, but said the area that can be cultivated this season remains unclear. In the previous season, only about 3,100 dunams were cultivated despite the urgent need for agricultural production.
Farmers are also struggling with widespread agricultural pests, including the tomato leafminer, or Tuta absoluta, which has caused significant damage to tomato crops amid the lack of necessary pesticides, resulting in substantial losses for farmers.
Agha warned that continued Israeli occupation and blockade policies, combined with the destruction of farmland and shortages of agricultural inputs, could bring agricultural production in Gaza to a complete halt as devastation continues to affect the Strip’s economic and productive sectors.
//Petra// AJ
