The workshop opened with the national anthem and a minute of silence for Palestinian martyrs. Engineer Mahmoud Qafaf, project manager (ESDC) welcomed the guests and gave a background of the project that is being implemented in the West Bank, discussing on the achievements in general and in the Tubas governorate in particular. Achievements include the development of the production of olive oil with high quality specifications and opening the doors for marketing olive products with relevant institutions, enabling farmers and cooperative societies to compete in the market.
Next, His Excellency, the Governor of Tubas and the North Jordan Valley praised the role of the private sector in the support and promotion of the cultivation of fruit trees in the occupied untapped agricultural land, especially in areas that are endangered through rehabilitation and reconstruction and planting trees, especially olive tree which has become the tree of pride and dignity of Palestinians stuck to their land and is associated with the heritage of Palestine. H.E. stressed the importance of the agricultural sector in stabilizing rights to their land from an unjust occupation.
Then, Mr. Akram Al Tahir, Executive Director of ESDC welcomed the attendees and stressed the Centers support of the olive sector through implementation of programs and projects aimed at improving the quality of the product and ease marketing locally and regionally and enabling olive oil cooperatives to be competitive in global markets. Mr. Al-Taher mentioned that the Center strives to ensure the continuation of the strategic partnerships for the development of the agricultural sector, both plant and livestock, including Oxfam. These partnerships all build on previous work in order to continually improve and develop the sector.
Following Mr. Tahers speech, Mr. Majdi Awad, Tubas Director of Agriculture that described the olive sector as a very important sector whose work must be coordinated and integrated between the private, public and civil sectors to ensure that it is within the Ministries Strategic Plan, which includes olive cultivation in Palestine. Next, Eng Mohammed Sawafta, project manager at Oxfam stressed the importance of projects being implemented in Tubas through institutions, led by the Economic and Social Development Center of Palestine. He reiterated that the vision of the sector can be achieved through the sustainable development of small-scale farmers and promotion and marketing their products so as to ensure economic justice.
In turn, Fayyad Fayyad of the Palestinian Oil Council called for action by all local and international efforts to serve the olive sector where the Council is currently working on building a database for the olive oil sector and to be a reference for all those interested and working and studying in the field of oil and olives. Finally, Mr. Ezzedine Daraghmeh, president of the Blessed Tree, praised the role of ESDC in supporting and developing the founded Blessed Tree which has now become a focus of attention of many institutions and producers of oil because of their importance in the production of oil and luxurious olive products. They attribute success to technology in the sector and additional agricultural techniques and mobilization of oil and marketed locally and externally in particular, Japan, Britain and Saudi Arabia, with prices that ensure the achievement of a good profit for farmers producers. He also pointed out that there is storage capacity oil on a year-round basis that is suitable and healthy. Further he mentioned that the Association provides services plowing and processing of land for farmers and production of organic fertilizers in addition to that there are unit production and food processing for Women qualifications for manufacturing safe food materials and the production of soap therapeutic.
A presentation explaining research studies on the subject of supplementary irrigation and its impact on production of olive groves was also presented to the attendees. In addition, the impact of the use of colored traps in olive fly control in addition to the theme and youthful pruning olive trees provided by both engineers Mohammed Ramez and Ayed Abdul Aziz
The workshop was closed with discussions and recommendations from the participants for developing the olive sector.