Quality assessment and producers’ needs analysis for the sustainable development of date palm cultivation in Jericho

Date palm cultivation in the Palestinian territories exists in the regions of Jericho and the Jordan Valley in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip. Around 400 date producers operate in the area of Jericho and Jiftlek. Actually, despite the potential high quality of Palestinian dates of the cultivar Medjools, the export to Europe still encounters many difficulties. This research took place within the project “Sostegno alla riorganizzazione produttiva, manageriale e commerciale delle cooperative di datteri palestinesi ed egiziani” (AID 10601), implemented by Jean Paul II Foundation and funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation. The main objective of the project is to enhance the quality and the sustainability of the management and strategic organisation of the rural enterprises beneficiary correlated to the productions of dates in West Bank. Within a perspective of improving of the technical and productive competencies and procedures of date producers, this study has been focused in particular on the following specific objectives: i) To understand more about the existing procedures (in particular harvest and selection steps) of a sample of selected farmer part of the cooperative, with the aim to collect relevant information and evaluate the possibilities to share existing best practices among all the members. ii) To explore the main issues that affect the quality of dates production and their linkages with internal and international markets, assessing potential areas of interventions. This paper presents the results of a field research mission conducted in Jericho and Jiftlek in September 2017. In order to achieve the above-mentioned objectives, this study has adopted a robust methodology based on the active involvement of the project stakeholders. In particular, the following activities were conducted before and during the field mission: desk-based analysis of reports; on field conduction of semi-structured interviews with a sample of date producers, along with on-site sustainability audit of their fields and farms during the activities of harvest and sorting, as well as with local stakeholders. Regarding the production of dates in Jericho, we should remark that some issues on quality are mainly due to the lack of adoption of standardized methods. Thus, Palestinian dates, with a step-by-step implementation of standardized procedure, could really improve the quality and faced in front of potential European markets and opportunities, also thanking the use of “made in Palestine” claim and label. Finally, the definition of new quality procedures for members of PFCA will foster more sustainable behaviour and improve commitment among them. In particular, the aim is to obtain a more sustainable chain, i.e. guaranteeing fair access to fundamental rights and conditions of well-being, within the workers and within the community, providing opportunities to create and develop internal and external relations involving the community, and recognizing the cultural value of this food commodity.