In 2017, the
European Union
(EU) gave Jordan a grant of 4.46 million Jordanian dinars (about six
million euros) to help farmers in the Jordan Valley reduce the
amount of electricity they use for irrigation and to encourage them
to use clean energy. They included farmers in the Southern Jordan
Valley, one of the poorest part of Jordan.
European grant
Rami Saad (not his real name), owns hundreds of acres of land in the
Southern Jordan Valley and is a member of one of the local water
users associations. He was able to reduce the production costs of
his farm, which exports crops to EU countries, after obtaining a
solar cell system for his farm, thanks to a European grant.
The four water user associations in theSouthern Jordan Valley have
acquired 11 solar cell systems, out of a total of 44 such systems
according to members of the administrative boards of water users
associations in the Southern Jordan Valley
The price of the solar power systems was dependent on the capacity,
which ranged from six to 16 kilowatts. According to the farmers, the
price was about 1,000 Jordanian dinars per kilowatt. Rami acquired
one of the systems with the largest capacity for his farm, which
produces fruit for export.
The Ministry of Environment and the Royal Scientific Society
together implemented the solar cell project, in cooperation with the
Ministry of Water, and with support from the Technical Assistance
project of the EU’s Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Programme
in Jordan (REEE II).
The grant was intended for agricultural holdings, known as
agricultural units. These have an area of between 30 and 40 acres
each, and account for about 60 percent of agricultural land in the
Southern Jordan Valley.
One of the project's objectives was to support farmers in the Jordan
Valley by reducing the cost of energy in irrigation by using
photovoltaic solar energy panels to power irrigation pumps.
The latest report of the Audit Bureau of Jordan (2022) points to
“the lack of approved mechanism for selecting those to benefit from
the support, and reliance on the records of the Jordan Valley
Authority, which were limited to members of water user
associations.” The report provided no details of who has benefitted
from the grant.
The Royal Scientific Society says that it calculated the energy use
of more than 350 agricultural units in the Jordan Valley, in
cooperation with the Jordan Water Authority and the Jordan Valley
Authority (JVA). They selected 320 units based on certain criteria,
which included limiting those benefiting from the grant to members
of water users associations that had signed an agreement with the
JVA on transferring responsibility for water management. Those
receiving the grant should also pay ten percent of the total cost of
the grant they received.
These criteria also stipulated that the owner of the agricultural
unit in receipt of a grant must have owned or rented it for three
years, or part owned the unit and have the authorization of the
partners. The criteria also layed down that the beneficiary must
have fully discharged all his obligations to the electricity
company, if the solar power system was connected to the grid.
The EU’s European Neighborhood Policy states that the grant
specified as a target group for the project small farmers who own
agricultural units of between thirty to forty acres.
The JVA set up irrigation water users associations to help farmers
prepare their annual water budget and to cut losses resulting from
illegal usage.
Clean energy is not for everyone
The amount of water allocated to farms has decreased, and at the
same time priority has been given to providing water for the
region’s
potash
industry. Fadi Al-Dala’ien, current president of the Wadi Khunayzir
Water Association – and one of the beneficiaries of the grant –
points out that the southern Jordan Valley region depends on both
spring water and flood water, both of which have declined by about a
half in recent years.
He says that farmers have resorted to storing water in ponds on
their farms, to provide enough water to irrigate their crops, and
that solar panels energy systems were provided to the three water
associations in the Southern Jordan Valley.
The Wadi Khunayzir association acquired 11 solar energy systems,
seven of which were given to members of the administrative board,
while four members of the association acquired the remaining
systems, according to the current association president.
Hassan Abdel Mohsen, a farmer but not a member of the water
association, makes no bones about how concerned he is that his farm,
in Ghor Al-Safi, could suffer a power cut. This has happened several
times before, when he was unable to pay the electricity bill for his
farm, which is between 40 to 45 Jordanian dinars per month.
As for Abdel-Jawad Al-Ashibat, a farmer from the same area – and not
a member of the water association - he says that he knew nothing of
the European grant.
Two thirds of Abdel-Jawad’s farm is left uncultivated because of the burdensome costs of production
Abdel-Jawad pays 20 to 35 dinars a month for the electricity he uses and would like to have the benefit of clean energy to reduce his bills. But the financial cost of installing solar panels is the obstacle.
Abdel-Jawad suffers from a shortage of water and from the decline in the amount of water allocated to farmers
Abdel Jawad faces high production costs, coinciding with a scarcity of water and a reduction in farmers’ water quotas. And this, even though he has only planted ten acres, out of the thirty he owns.