Income & Food Boosts From Fish-Farming in Jordan

61-year-old Abou Baker has a family of 14 to support on his small farm in an area burdened by water shortage, high production prices, and poor marketing. With NEF support, he's learned fish famring. "This pond is easy to manage. It does not require much work and generates $400-500 on average each season, as well as providing fish for my family and my neighbors all year round," he says. Last November, a traditional down-season, the family earned $700 fish farming, an increase of about 15-20%.

Proper fish farming requires 3 basics; the Jordan Valley meets them all. Temperatures permit growing summer crops into spring and fall. It's the only place on earth where crops can grow in winter without greenhousing. Water level cannot go below one meter, otherwise fish ponds get too warm and fish die. Also okay since government-maintained reservoirs provide irigation water to farmers twice weekly. Most important are well-managed fish farms, which NEF training assures.

For potentially thousands of farmers of the Jordan Valley, fish farming could be very serious business: increasing incomes, enhancing nutrition and their country's food security, and importantly, contributing to wise water management in an area that is one of the 10 poorest in the world when it comes to this precious resource. NEF made these conclusions after collecting data for the only study ever done on fish farming in Jordan.

Hajem Haleseh (c in sunglasses), NEF Jordan Country Director, is the national authority on fish farming in Jordan, and obtained his M.S. in fish farming engineering from Romania. NEF has been providing fish farming counseling and training for farmers in the Jordan Valley since 1989. With funding, thousands more could become involved, even nationally; fish species diversified; & marketing extended beyond the capital to other large Jordanian cities.