AMMAN, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Favorable rainfall in the latest farming season has boosted Jordan's grain deliveries to a multi-year high, yet output remains far below the country's demand, leaving self-sufficiency out of reach, officials and experts have warned.
Mohammad Jamal, director of the Grain Directorate at Jordan's Ministry of Industry, Trade and Supply, said recently that the 2025-2026 agricultural season witnessed a significant improvement in wheat and barley production, mainly due to abundant rainfall.
Farmers delivered about 117,000 tons of wheat and barley, with further quantities expected, Jamal said, describing the level of deliveries as the highest recorded in years.
He noted that applications for production certificates also doubled, with certified wheat fields totaling 107,000 dunums (107 square kilometers) and barley fields 366,000 dunums (366 square kilometers).
Despite the strong growth, domestic grain production, such as wheat, remains small compared with the kingdom's annual needs, Jamal warned.
Jordan consumes about 1 million tons of wheat each year, meaning that producing 40,000 tons of wheat would cover only about 4 percent of the annual demand, he said.
Despite the recent gains, Jamal attributed the sector's long-term decline to water scarcity, rising production costs, and low returns compared with imported wheat.
Rural-to-urban migration and declining interest among younger generations in agricultural work have also contributed to the decline, he added.
Ahmad Khaled Alomari, a 62-year-old farmer in northern Jordan, recalled that wheat farming expanded sharply between the mid-1980s and early 1990s. He said subsequent urban sprawl and the division of agricultural land into smaller holdings have since made large-scale grain cultivation more difficult.
The country therefore relies on imports and strategic reserves to bridge the gap between low local yields and high consumption, according to the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Supply. Current stocks stand at 610,000 tons of wheat, enough to cover around 6.4 months of consumption. Another 302,000 tons have been contracted and are in transit, bringing total coverage to about 9.6 months.
The figures reflect the balance Jordan is trying to maintain: increasing domestic production without relying on it to meet the country's entire wheat demand.
Omar Shoshan, head of the Jordan Environmental Union, advocated boosting domestic output but cautioned that full self-sufficiency is unattainable, citing limited water resources and agricultural land, as well as the growing impact of climate change.
Instead of expanding farmland, Shoshan urged a focus on productivity, prioritizing improved seeds, water harvesting, and climate-smart practices to maximize yields.
For Alomari, stronger protection and compensation mechanisms are needed as some farmers have suffered major losses when fires swept through wheat fields.
Greater certainty over crop purchases and support in the event of losses would encourage farmers to produce more, he added. ■
