We caught up with Elyan abu Arrah, busy harvesting his almonds in the village of Aqaba. Last year his harvest was a little lower than usual, affected by climate change. We were pleased to hear that this harvest is much better, and he’s produced about 4 tonnes of almonds.
The trees were provided by the Trees for Life programme four years ago, and since then, he says, “Growing almonds has become part of our life.”
One way in which Palestinian farmers like Elyan can mitigate the effects of climate change is to plant ‘pollinator trees’ in their groves. These trees pollinate others via the wind, rather than bees. In past years, reliance on bee pollination has proved to be challenging in the face of shifting seasonal weather patterns.
Elyan has planted one row of these trees to every four rows of traditional ‘Om al-Fahem’ almond trees. So far, he reports that this is very effective in ensuring high pollination rates.
Have you tried our almonds?
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