The role of the urban agriculture on food security crisis in Gaza Strip during 2014 assault : case study : Beit Lahia City

Other Title(s)

دور الزراعة الحضرية في أزمة الأمن الغذائي في قطاع غزة خلال عدوان 2014 : دراسة حالة-مدينة بيت لاهيا

Dissertant

Khalil, Hadi Fathi Abd al-Raziq

Thesis advisor

al-Najjar, Husam Muhammad

University

Islamic University

Faculty

Faculty of Science

University Country

Palestine (Gaza Strip)

Degree

Master

Degree Date

2018

English Abstract

In August 2014, Gaza marked the end of the third Israeli assault since 2008; which has made Gaza a conflict-vulnerable zone.

As a result of the 2014 assault, thousands of Palestinians were killed and injured, and tens of thousands were displaced, in addition to severe damage in the different sectors all over Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, the productive capacity was dramatically affected, and therefore the food security status has been worsening ever since.

Urban agriculture is among those socio economic sectors that are interrelated with food security and therefore it plays a significant role in national development by contributing towards food security, job creation and income generation.

This study aims to assess the role of urban agriculture on the recovery of the agricultural sector and the input to food security.

It also aims to assess the potential of urban agriculture to secure daily needs during Israeli offensives against Gaza.

A combination of both quantitative and qualitative research methods was employed in this study.

In the quantitative design, 129 randomly selected urban farmers from the area of the survey, Beit Lahia city, completed the self-administered close-ended questionnaires, whereas the statistical analysis presents the sociodemographic, economic and other aspects of the households.

The qualitative data collection included interviews with six governmental and non-governmental officials.

The results show that 89.2 percent of the UA practitioners are feeling food secure, to some or a large extent, due to their engagement in UA.

However, a small percentage of the households who practice UA are still experiencing difficulties with food security.

In the meantime, the war forced most of the urban farmers to evacuate their homes or lands, thus only 34.9 percent of urban farmers managed to gain food during the 2014 war due to their engagement in UA; this percentage shows the severe deterioration of food security status during the war even for UA practitioners.

The study also found that, despite their engagement in UA, more than 46 percent of the urban farmers in the study area are still spending more than 40% of their income on food requirements for their families, as they focus on cash crops and export rather than food crops.

In addition to the above and based on the study result, it is found that UA is also contributing to create more jobs opportunities and improving household income.

The UA production can also foster the local market availability of agriculture products and this will help poor community members to access the UA products.

From a strategic perspective, urban agriculture holdings need be extended to make a larger contribution to the food security levels in Gaza strip, if organized well.

Government support is much needed to adopt sustainable UA plans to alleviate the level of poverty within the strip and therefore to improve the food security status.

The stakeholders involved in urban farming also should coordinate with each other and integrate their support towards improving the productivity of urban agriculture at household and community levels.

Main Subjects

Economy and Commerce

Topics

• Case studies
• Agriculture
• Food security
• Beit Lahia

No. of Pages

118

Table of Contents

• APA
• MLA
• AMA

Language

English

Data Type

Arab Theses

Record ID

BIM-900940