Project Title:	SAHARA Project: Innovative and Food Production inside the Water-Energy-Food Nexus inside Jordan
Project Duration:	11 months
Location:	Amman, Jordan
Start Date:	November 2020
End Date:	September 2021
Beneficiaries:	15 young female agricultural engineers

Project:	SAHARA Project: Innovative and Food Production inside the Water-Energy-Food Nexus inside Jordan
Project Partner:	Hussein Technical University
Project Donor:	The Norwegian Government, Costa Crociere Foundation

Project Details

Problem Statement

 

Jordan’s agriculture sector faces challenges towards developing the human and technical infrastructure needed for sustainable agriculture. Jordan has limited surface water resources, and the majority of its total water budget comes from over-exploited groundwater aquifers that are being used at dangerously unsustainable rates. Climate change has led to drier summers, warmer winters, new pest challenges, and sporadic rainfall that threaten agricultural production and create uncertain conditions that are challenging for farmers to adapt to.  New technologies that can alleviate the burden of new climate patterns are expensive and rural areas lack the appropriate infrastructure to fully take advantage of new and existing technologies. Current agricultural practices are water inefficient and insufficient to meet the demands of future water and food demand.

 

However, adopting new technologies and practices in the agricultural sector faces a more immediate problem: obstacles to the necessary human capital needed to install and operate new technologies. The agriculture sector faces three principal challenges: First, the mismatch between education outputs and the skills required by the labor market causes high unemployment among university graduates. Second, the inability of both the private and public sector to absorb new market labor entrants and to create more decent jobs. Third, lacking access to quality national programs that facilitate a smooth school-to-work transition, including vocational training and career guidance. These challenges create a large gap between the agriculture sector and skilled engineers needed to operate new, advanced agricultural systems. This training program in partnership with the Hussein Technical University seeks to address this gap and facilitate the entrance of skilled engineers into agricultural fields.

 

Project Summary

 

Hussein Technical University and the Sahara Forest Project led this project to enhance the capacity of female agriculture engineers to become better prepared to work in advanced agriculture and irrigation methods. MIRRA served as the technical trainer for all content delivered to participants. The objective of this project was to enhance the capabilities of 15 unemployed female engineers on the innovation within the water-energy-food nexus in Jordan. Project outcomes included training students in a 9-month program that involved technical training on theoretical and practical skills in cutting-edge agriculture techniques: soilless greenhouse agriculture, pest management, drip irrigation, crop water requirement, irrigation system design & parameter selection, as well as concepts in land management. MIRRA complemented agricultural training with material on entrepreneurship, innovation within the agriculture sector, and the building-blocks of developing a business plan. This instruction was designed to match the skills of agriculture engineers to emerging business opportunities within the agriculture sector and shorten the gap between skilled engineers and the agro-business labor market.

 

Project Activities

 

Program material was delivered in four modules over the course of a winter, spring, and summer semester. The four modules included all training content thematically covering soilless agriculture, organic farming, non-conventional water, and drip irrigation. Training combined different educational approaches to provide a holistic set of skills across numerous areas of modern agriculture. The agriculture engineers received a strong schedule of theoretical training in climate smart agriculture, soilless greenhouse agriculture, and drip irrigation systems. Theoretical material was complimented with field visits, hands-on training with software such as AUTOCAD, CROPWAT, and IRRICAD, laboratory tests, as well as visits to agriculture suppliers.

 

Project Impact

Project Relevance

 

The need for skilled labor within the agriculture sector is great. The current labor force primarily consists of foreign workers from Egypt, Syria, and East Asia with a sizable proportion of local Jordanian workers. These workers bear a great deal of responsibility for performing necessary labor and managing farm operations. However, farmers require trained labor to properly manage and operate advanced agricultural methods. This program addresses this gap in labor demand which serves a necessary precondition for sector-wide transition into advanced, sustainable agricultural solutions. Moreover, the training provided to the trainees will directly address the pressing unemployment issue in Jordan by developing marketable skills for future work in the agricultural sector and sectors throughout the value-chain downstream of agriculture production.

 

Project Coherence

 

This project supports the objectives of many of MIRRA’s past and on-going projects to build the capacity of farmers. While these capacity building sessions enhance the technical capabilities of farmers to implement more efficient technologies, this project is a strategic complement to these initiatives by developing qualified engineers to operate and maintain modern irrigation systems. This program both farmers and prospective agriculture engineers to find new opportunities in sustainable agriculture that will promote green jobs and technological development which is in line with both Jordan’s Green Growth Action Plan 2021 – 2025 as well as Jordan’s Economic Modernization Vision.

 

Project Effectiveness

 

This project achieved its stated outcomes. Trainees successfully completed the entire 9-month training program and all planned activities. Students gained many different experiential learning opportunities to visit different elements of the agriculture value chain within Jordan. In Gaza Camp, Jerash, trainees visited a novel hydroponic system on the rooftops of houses. The objective of the field visit was to demonstrate different hydroponic systems and to learn from people’s experience on hydroponic systems operation. The trainees visited Fuhais and Mahes Centralized Wastewater treatment plant along, a decentralized waste water treatment project, and a local farming operation that uses compost to generate biogas from the waste and power farm operations. They gained exposure to two methods of treating wastewater in addition to a non-conventional approach to reusing solid agriculture waste byproduct. Students gained valuable insight into each the applicably of each technology to different challenges in agriculture. Students also visited a soilless agriculture farm, irrigation system manufacturers, as well as a school in Mafraq to observe greywater treatment systems with solar energy systems. Trainees successfully completed numerous assignments and training objectives, such as preparing reports on pest management, soilless culture, nutrient management, and the regulations surrounding organic farming.

 

Project Efficiency

 

In the project’s short timeline, MIRRA’s technical team of experienced staff was capable of delivering instruction on numerous different topics covering the theoretical implications of climate change, the climate obstacles facing Jordan, as well as technical foundation that provide actionable skills to engineers to begin working towards sustainable solutions towards these climate problems. By targeting unemployed female engineers directly, this project was able to direct all resources directly to the group most in need of professional training in a strategic sector for Jordan’s future sustainability. 

 

Project Impact

This project has provided beneficiaries with a robust set of skills for the future of Jordan’s agriculture sector. Trainees have benefited from an important knowledge transfer in technical areas critical to the green growth of Jordan’s agriculture sector. Trainees have a working knowledge of the core concepts of climate change, hydraulics, modern irrigation, as well as the practical skills needed to implement this knowledge into real-world scenarios. Skills in writing, communication, software, and technical knowledge of several agricultural systems will allow these trainees to effectively work in many areas of agricultural engineering which qualifies them for future job opportunities and job security. These skills also address current labor market gaps between the needs of the agriculture sector and the current labor force employed in the sector which will have an impact on the sector’s ability to adapt and change to new agriculture methods.

 

Project Sustainability

 

The country’s strategic focus on technology transfer, increasing investment into green jobs, and using water more efficiently mean that the skills and knowledge delivered to all trainees will continue to match the needs and challenges of the agriculture sector. This means that the skills these agriculture engineers have acquired will continue to serve them into the future.  

 

Stakeholder Engagement with Strategic Groups

Project Beneficiaries 

 

The beneficiaries of this project are unemployed female agriculture engineers. By targeting young female professionals, MIRRA has adopted a gender responsive approach in its programming: empowering emerging female roles in agriculture and the future of a sustainable agriculture sector.

 

Project photo album