Ammon News - The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the National Center for Agricultural Research (NARC) on Saturday signed a cooperation agreement to organize festivals for Jordan's agricultural products with the aim of empowering rural families and farmers.

The agreement offers training to farmers, engineers and rural women on how to "best" handle product marketing management to access the "highest" marketing outlets to come up with a "pioneering" product and a "leading" sales quantity.

The agreement also includes organizing the National Olive Festival, the Rural Products Exhibition, the Pomegranate Festival in Irbid, and Southern Ghor Festival for agricultural products.

Signing the agreement, FAO representative in Jordan, Nabil Assaf, said this agreement aims to assist the Ministry of Agriculture and NARC in empowering rural families and farmers by providing marketing outlets for their rural and agricultural products, especially olives and olive oil.

NARC's Director-General, Dr. Nizar Haddad, said the successes on the national festivals were made, thanks to the concerted efforts of national institutions in the private and public sectors, and the support of international and local partners, especially the FAO.

Haddad pointed to the Ministry of Agriculture's role in promoting local products by regulating and preventing import operations in light of self-sufficiency, as well as organizing festivals, primarily the National Olive Festival, as a key marketing opportunity for local olive oil.

These festivals open an opportunity for citizens looking for high-quality local products, he said.