Jordan Jordan Arab Watch Report - Right to Food - Food to Report - Right Watch Arab
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Jordan Jordan Arab Watch Report - Right To Food - Food To Report - Right Watch Arab Jordan’s Food Security: Heavy reliance on food imports while civil society promotes food sovereignty Hussam Hussein Researcher and Academic on Agricultural Policy and Food Sovereignty 242 243 1. Introduction is subject to a blockade (including food blockade) to the economic crisis in the 1980s, when the like the Samra wastewater plant. As suggested by by its neighboring countries and main former Jordanian government increased the amounts it the IMF, the Jordanian government has reduced the exporters of food: Saudi Arabia and the United Arab was borrowing from foreign lenders, entering into subsidies to electricity and increased their tariffs Food sovereignty is about empowering local Emirates (UAE). In addition, while the Jordanian a debt crisis (Yorke 2013). In 1989, late King Hussein gradually between 2014 till 2017 (interview with communities and allowing them to decide what food budget relies on international aid, food for the agreed to a loan from the IMF, with a conditionality Western donor). to produce and to consume, in line with their cultural population is also subsidized, as the government for “structural adjustment and the imposition of Economic neoliberal reforms impacted farmers and traditional preferences. Therefore, the concept needs to ensure economic accessibility to food to neo-liberal economic reforms” (Marie Baylouny – especially small farmers - and the agricultural of food sovereignty has a political dimension, as “it its citizens. As noted by Martinez (2017), Jordan 277 :2008). Further loans were received from the sector in Jordan. In fact, these reforms opened up emphasizes ecologically appropriate production, has one of the highest per capita subsidy schemes IMF, with the imposition of similar neo-liberal the Jordanian market and facilitated the import distribution and consumption, social-economic in the world. For instance, the price of bread economic and structural reforms from 1989 until and export of agricultural products, which meant justice and local food systems as ways to tackle remained static between 1974 and 2007, due to 2004 and since 2012 (interview with Western donor more competition from abroad faced by Jordanian hunger and poverty and guarantee sustainable food price controls and subsidy interventions, which and IMF website1). 2 farmers. In particular, the Jordanian government security for all” (Nyéléni Newsletter, 2013). Thus, ensured the population’s access to staple food reduced or eliminated import duties on agricultural food sovereignty does not necessarily coincide (ibid.). However, the government has recently Consequently, several neoliberal reforms took place. products with its major trade partners, including the with food self-sufficiency or food self-production. modified the subsidy program for bread, replacing According to Baylouny (2008), the government EU and the US. In fact, import duties and other trade In a “food democratic world”, food sovereignty the broad bread subsidy program with a targeted began by reducing public expenditure on social barriers between Jordan and the US were phased would be a pre-requisite to food security, as policies assistance system, which, since 2018, is delivered services, including cutting subsidies on consumer out in 2010 as part as the Free Trade Agreement to ensure food security in a country would be through an electronic benefit transfer card cash goods like gasoline, cigarettes, and cooking oil. (FTA). Several reforms focused on reducing the informed by the preferences of local communities, support of USD 241 million to over 6 million people But reforms had to be implemented gradually to number of physical inspections of traded goods who would determine what should be produced in the country. This measure has been introduced avoid riots and protests by the poorest and most and the introduction of online customs services, and consumed in their community and country, aiming to reduce public spending and food waste marginalized groups of society (Baylouny :2008 which aimed at facilitating import and export and Jordan with considerations of ecology appropriateness (FAO 2018). In addition, food imports makes Jordan 278). Following King Abdullah II’s accession in 1999, reducing non-tariff barriers. Small farmers suffered and socio-economic justice. reliant on trade and global markets, undermining reforms towards privatization of public companies the most of this increased competition from abroad, food sovereignty aspects of giving a choice to the took place, benefiting the economic elites of as they had less capability to adapt and to shift to In Jordan, the government and the Ministry of local communities in Jordan to choose what to the country. Further policies supported foreign new crops. Agriculture are responsible for ensuring food produce as well as what to consume. direct investment through the abolition of rules security in the country and making decisions on This paper discusses challenges and opportunities and regulations and private sector development 2.2 Population growth national agricultural policies; the main solution has in relation to food sovereignty in Jordan. It does so through reforms in line with the best practices of been to ensure food security through food import. by: first, providing general background information the World Bank’s Doing Business report3. Jordan In fact, Jordan has been heavily relying on food then established the Aqaba Special Economic The population of Jordan increased from 225,000 on Jordan; second, discussing the agricultural during the Emirate of Jordan in 1922 (Haddadin import, especially for staple cereals food products, sector in the country; third, analyzing the options to Zone, joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in order to ensure food security in the country. in 2000, and signed several free trade agreements. 2006) to over 10 million in 2018. This is mainly due ensure food security in Jordan; fourth, presenting - Food To Report - Right Watch Arab “Over %97 of the domestic cereal food and feed Finally, privatization of state-owned companies to the several waves of refugees of Palestinian, cases of food sovereignty in practice in the country; Lebanese, Iraqi, and Syrian origins, who fled their requirements are satisfied through imports. […] and finally, providing some concluding remarks. took place, including in the following cases: Wheat imports in 18/2017 are forecast at an average Jordan Telecommunications Company, Royal home countries due to wars and occupations. of 900,000 tonnes. Most of the wheat imports Jordanian Airlines, Queen Alia International Airport, Significant increases in the population occurred originate from Romania, the Russian Federation 2. General background Hammamat Main Resort, and water-related services after the 1949-1948 war with Israel, the six days war and Ukraine” (FAO 2018). in 1967, the second Gulf war in the early 1990s, the Jordan is a heavily urbanized – over %80 of its Iraq war in 2003, and currently due to the events in However, promoters of food sovereignty criticize the population lives in urban areas –, lower- to middle- 1 http://www.imf.org/external/np/fin/tad/extarr2. Syria.4 Jordan served as a host country because of Jordanian decision of over-relying on food imports income country with scarce and limited water and aspx?memberKey1=530&date1key=2014-11-30 its political stability and its location, bordering Syria for its food security. In fact, the food import option is natural resources. Services, industry, and foreign 2 The main features of economic neo-liberalism in the north, Iraq in the east, Saudi Arabia in the south and east, and Israel and the occupied West usually pursued by countries capable of generating aid are the main sources of income for the national are: deregulation for a free market meaning freeing the financial resources able to meet the food import bill, budget. This section provides general background Bank in the west. which is not the case in Jordan. In addition, while this information on neoliberal economic reforms; private sector from regulations imposed by the state; sup- Out of the over 10 million people living in Jordan, option may make sense from a water perspective, population; climate; and water resources and use. porting freedom of movement for trade, capital, goods, and given the limited water resources of the country, services and eliminating tariffs, subsidies, and state-im- making Jordan vulnerable to fluctuations in food 2.1 Economic neo-liberalism posed protections; reducing public expenditure for social 4 The waves of Palestinians arriving in Jordan prices and the international food supply on the services, including the abolition of subsidies or any form of global market, changes and fluctuations in prices occurred after major Israeli-Arab wars in 1948, 1967, 1973, Generally, this section sheds light on the impact or supply could result in crises similar to the ones or support safety-nets for the marginalized groups, includ- and 1982; following the second Gulf war in 1990-1991, the of economic neoliberal reforms on the agricultural in 2008/2007 and in 2011. Moreover, Jordan might ing for health and educational sectors; and privatization of sector in Jordan, showing how these reforms led war in Iraq in 2003, and the unrest that started in 2011 in be vulnerable to the global food supply, which may state-owned companies (Olssen and Peters 2005). to a process of dispossession and marginalization several Arab countries, including the still on-going events be impacted also by regional geopolitics, such as is of small farmers and rural women. Economic 3 See “Doing Business in the Arab World 2013 in Syria. Minor waves from Lebanon also occurred as a currently the case since 2017 versus Qatar, which neoliberal reforms in Jordan can be traced back Report”, IFC-World Bank Group, 2013 consequence of political instability there. 244 245 %83 lives in urban areas,5 mainly in the northern groundwater basins in Jordan (Jassim and Alraggad be seen as more water-friendly than the Highlands, part of the country in Amman, Irbid, Zarqa, and 356 :2009).