The Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion Project (EDIP), and its Gaza-based implementation partner, Save the Children, recently delivered and installed drip irrigation units to residents in Gaza.
EDIP and Save the Children worked closely with USAID to coordinate logistics, identify appropriate beneficiaries, select sites, and design drip irrigation units to suit local conditions to meet pressing humanitarian needs.
The drip irrigation units are designed to facilitate the production of fresh vegetables by families to meet their own needs and introduce additional produce into the Gaza market. Greenhouse production should help compensate for the ongoing shortage of fresh, healthy vegetables. The production and sale of produce will also create jobs for poor farming families, leading to additional household income.
“I’ve already used the nylon for soil sterilization and it was very good. These irrigation drips are really good, they are of superior quality and we cannot buy anything like them on the local market. It’s rare to have such equipment because of the closure of borders. My neighbors keep asking me where I got such materials.” Amer Mahmoud Abu Ajeina is a 33 year-old strawberry farmer who lives in Beit Lahya, Northern Gaza Strip together with his wife, three daughters and one son.
Many residents like Amer have recently struggled to make ends meet, but with the installation of the new USAID drip irrigation units, she and her family will benefit from access to more regular income and better sustenance. Beneficiaries were selected based on plot quality, farming skills, marginalization, family size, and income.
The Gaza drip irrigation initiative forms a core part of ongoing program activities implemented by EDIP. EDIP follows a market-led strategy, connecting Palestinian firms with local and global markets, using the ensuing market feedback to identify constraints to competitiveness and expansion, and then targeting project resources to provide solutions.
