Gaza takes pineapple test
Gaza's Union of Agricultural Work Committees announced that it will try to grow pineapples for the first time in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, within the scope of the project to promote sustainable development through the most profitable crops.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Gaza's Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) believes it is necessary to support farmers and to achieve a minimum of self-sufficiency in agricultural crops, and so it is applying a policy of crop diversification, especially of those that are most profitable.
On Aug. 2, the UAWC announced that it will start an experiment to grow pineapples in the Khan Yunis governorate for the first time in the Gaza Strip, and that if successful the land allocated for the cultivation of pineapples will be expanded.
After the announcement, academics at agriculture and environment faculties called for an economic feasibility study of this experiment to be conduced before applying the crop diversification policy because Gaza suffers from a severe water crisis and a shortage of agricultural areas.
The water from the coastal aquifer in Gaza is not drinkable due to the high salinity caused by seawater intrusion, not to mention the decreasing rainfall and the lack of a sewage system to collect rainwater.
