Supporting the agriculture livelihood of vulnerable farmers in Salfit and Nablus
governorates Palestinian farmers face many hardships including access to resources and markets as well as hostilities from settlers and Israeli Occupation practices. Nearly 63% of farming land is classified as area C (UNCTAD, 2014) and with the continued Israeli restrictions to land, water, market constraints and the increased settler attacks of farmers, their land and livelihood assets puts them at great risk of loss of land and forced displacement.  The continued expansion of illegal Israeli settlements results in a furthered worsened humanitarian situation for farmers and families in Area C. The humanitarian situation for farmers in the targeted areas has been declining for many years, and with the onset of a disaster, farmers and their families use negative coping strategies in order to maintain their livelihood and afford basic commodities such as food and health care.

Palestinian communities in Area C are among the most vulnerable in the West Bank. In particular, demolitions and forced evictions deprive people of their homes and disrupt livelihoods, leading to entrenched poverty and increased aid dependency. Populations in area C are further confronted by settler violence  and hence agriculture has rapidly declined leaving many farmers out of work and the majority of the population’s food insecure. In order for farmers to sustain their livelihoods in area C, protect their land and avoid forced displacement, it is vital to ensure that farmers have access to their land to avoid confiscation of unattended to land by IOF and settlers which will further undermine livelihood of threatened farmers in the area. 

As a member of the FSS Criteria Drafting Committee, ESDC has been working with the sector to ensure timely and effective response to demolitions to prevent forced displacement in the West Bank. Within this scope, ESDC has been in contact with the Ministry of Agriculture for the demolitions of agriculture livelihood assets in the West Bank. The MoA has a list of over 700 people who have recorded demolitions and damages to their agriculture assets as a direct result to IOF and settler activities. ESDC filtered the list to include those who have had demolitions or damage to productive assets such as cisterns, greenhouses, pipes, irrigation lines, trees and field crops, which narrowed the list to 223, of which there is a clear gap on response with about 190 not receiving a response. However, at the same time, it was identified that there are additional farmers that are not part of the MoA list that have had occupational destruction and damages to their agriculture assets. Between 2015 and present 2016, the MoA estimates that the damages incurred for farmers and their land due to settler and occupational destruction is more than 6.8 million USD.

Further, farmers in the targeted area are in constant threat when accessing their lands. The lands have limited agriculture roads and farmers crossing fields are prone to settler attacks from the nearby settlement of Yizhar. The limited agriculture roads in the area result in minimal farmer traffic which makes farmers cultivating their land easy targets for settlers. Farmers in the area have expressed the need for support in protecting their livelihood including agriculture land and road rehabilitation, giving farmers access to their resources. Further, farmers are in need to rehabilitate their agriculture lands as a result of destruction/and/or lack of accessibility in order to protect their lands and livelihood. The farmers in the targeted localities are in the need for protecting and stabilizing their livelihood which will be accomplished to access to their resources through the access and rehabilitation to and of their land.

In total, 400 farmers (40 filling the identified gap and 360 improved resilience of vulnerable farmers), and their families will benefit from the project in order to sustain their lands and agriculture livelihood.