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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Prime Minister, Omar Razzaz, on Monday attended the signing of four agreements between the Agriculture Ministry, the Jordan Valley Farmers Union and agricultural companies and cooperatives.

In the presence of Environment Minister and Acting Agriculture Minister, Saleh Kharabsheh, the Prime Minister attended the signing of agreements to establish the Agricultural Business Services Center, the establishment of the tracking project of agricultural products and employment by organizing agricultural labor, and employment through agricultural mechanization.

In his speech after the signing, Razzaz said "His Majesty King Abdullah has directed the government to employ our youth in the agricultural sector further adopting self-reliance," noting that in recent months "we have realized the importance of self-reliance in our consumption and as an important export value for this sector."

The Prime Minister touched upon a number of important topics to promote the advancement of the agricultural sector, such as packaging and marketing of agricultural products due to their importance to emerging farms and small farmers, as well as storage and cooling of products for their role in extending the life of crops and thus exporting abroad, with an emphasis on benefiting from the communications and information technology sector in enhancing the value added to the agricultural sector.

Razzaz underlined the importance of "engaging our youth to work in the agricultural sector," saying, "Neither nationally, sectorally, or agriculturally, we should accept that 90 percent of our land remains cultivated by expatriate workers."

He highlighted the importance of preparing an appropriate environment to attract young people to work in the agricultural sector by mechanizing agriculture, to contribute to raising the productivity of the Jordanian worker, which will be reflected on his income, while subjecting him to social security and providing him with health insurance.

He announced that the government, through the Legislation and Opinion Bureau, is about to complete the system of including Jordanian agricultural labor in social security in the current week, which will contribute to providing a suitable work environment and increasing the value added to the agricultural sector.

Razzaz lauded the leading projects of the agricultural cooperative societies and associations and the General Union of Jordanian Farmers, stressing the importance of partnership between the government and these institutions to support small and senior farmers and enable them to compete, and achieve a qualitative shift for the agricultural sector.

For his part, Minister Kharabsheh gave a presentation on leading initiatives in the agricultural sector, which are part of the national strategy for agricultural development that were recently prepared by the ministry.

Heads of cooperative agricultural societies, the president of the Jordan Valley Farmers Union, and a number of company heads talked highlighted challenges facing the agricultural sector, the importance of taking advantage of the available opportunities as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, and marketing agricultural products leveraging technological methods.