PARC

Noteworthy accomplishments implemented in 600 residential communities

Program Definition:

The Land Development Program is a collection of interventions and projects in accordance with PARC's strategic objective to strengthen the economic role and contribute to the realization of food security and sustainable agricultural development. Thus it also conforms to meet PARC's interim goal of securing and developing natural resources (land and water) and their additional production outputs.

Target Group:

Marginalized rural regions with high unemployment rates.

Program Objectives:

1. To organize, train, and guide famers in the optimal usage of natural resources, without impacting the rights of future generations.
2. To improve food security in rural areas by increasing agricultural production, improving its quality, and improving access to natural resources.

Desired Results of the Program:

1. Increasing the amount of water available for agriculture while also protecting water sources from contamination and waste.
2. Increasing the area of irrigated agricultural land.
3. Converting marginal mountain lands into fertile farmland.
4. Increasing farmer participation, both male and female, in natural resource management (land and water), and assuming their responsibilities in this regard.
5. Providing more work opportunities in agriculture, whether provisional or permanent, and improving competition in agricultural work.
6. Contributing to the protection of agricultural lands from confiscation.
7. Contributing to breaking the blockade imposed on Palestinian lands through the construction of access roads between population centres and therefore between agricultural lands.
8. Improving the environmental situation through seed farming and building stone retaining walls.

Noteworthy accomplishments implemented in 600 residential communities:

1. Construction and rehabilitation of 1,349 agricultural roads with a total length of 3102 kilometres. Of these, 390 connector agricultural roads with a length of 1096 kilometres help link more than 590 residential communities to each other.
2. The levelling of 22,071 dunams of agricultural land in the West Bank and Gaza Strip using heavy machinery.
3. The building of more than 1,236,657 square metres of stone retaining walls in reclamation projects, along road sides, and in formerly cultivated agricultural lands in the West Bank.
4. The establishment of wells and reservoirs to collect water in quantities larger than 81841 cubic metres, as part of integrated reclamation projects only in the West Bank that enclose more than 12,789 dunams of recently cultivated agricultural land, or as part of integrated reclamation projects.
5. Cultivation of more than 750,000 fruitful seedlings during the Al-Aqsa Intifada only, both as part of and outside of integrated reclamation projects, from which 81,420 farming families, including over 569940 family members, benefitted from reclaimed land, walls, roads, fences, wells for reclamation projects, and seedlings.
6. Facilitating access to more than 1,100,000 dunams of farmland, either directly or indirectly, through agricultural roads.
7. Servicing more than 33,650 dunams of farmland by building stone retaining walls on newly reclaimed and formerly cultivated lands as well as along the sides of agricultural roads and in home gardens.
8. The provision of more than 506,000 work days focusing only on roadway, reclamation, and wall projects.

Due to the problems faced by the agricultural sector in previous years from destruction by the occupying forces, donor neglect, small budgets from the Palestinian Authority, as well as taking into account that 65% of residents living in rural areas are either partially or completely dependent on agriculture, and considering the overall importance of the agricultural sector, PARC decided to initiate work and implement agricultural programs and projects.