Amman - AlBaqaa
Under the patronage of His Excellency, The Ministry of Agriculture Eng. Ibrahim Al–Shahahdeh, the National Agricultural Research Center(NARC) launched the workshop of releasing and adopting of 6 varieties of wheat and barley, in parallel with the launching of the Scientific Day of Crop Research Directorate,in the presence of many field crop farmers and those interested in the agricultural sector.
The Ministry highly appraised NARC’s role as the scientific and research arm of the Ministry of Agriculture in developing varieties of wheat and barley adopted for Jordanian environments and climate change conditions as well, describing NARC as the house of Jordan expertise.
Al-Shahahdeh pointed out that the Ministry purchased the 2019 triple production of barley and wheat at the highest price, as a step towards encouraging farmers and serving the agricultural sector, generally speaking. The Minister also confirmed that as the farmer is the basic unit in the agricultural sector, NARC is considered the food security incubator through the efforts and procedures done to develop and adopt new crop varieties.
On his part, Dr.Nizar Haddad, the Director-General of NARC, expressed his appreciation for the continuous work over the last 15 years with non-stop efforts of 70 colleagues in 40 different geographical locations in the Kingdom, in cooperation with several local and international institutions and entities, those efforts were finally crowned with the release of 3 new varieties of Wheat and 3 new other varieties of Barley adapted to local climatic conditions. As a result, production would be raised by 20-30% above normal rates in light of climatic changes, the decline of agricultural areas, and fluctuations in rainy seasons.Haddad added that NARC’S partners in this achievement, institutions, and entities spared no effort to support. Haddad extended gratitude to the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission, International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), the Arab Center for Studies of Arid Zones and Dry Lands (ACSAD), and Bioversity International.
Dr.Yahya Shkhatreh, head of the Crop Directorate at NARC briefed the accreditation mechanism, which lasted for fifteen years in 40 different agricultural environments, where 6 varieties were adopted as a result, confirming that these new varieties which will replace the old ones by three years.