Food security expert Dr. Fadel ELZUBI stated: “The challenges facing agriculture today are not limited to water, climate, and markets; the cost of production itself has become one of the greatest threats to the sector’s sustainability.” He explained that rising prices of fertilizers, energy, transport, labor, water, and services are increasingly squeezing farmers’ profit margins, leaving smallholders trapped in a difficult equation: higher production costs, but selling prices that cannot rise at the same pace.
Dr. ELZUBI emphasized the particular importance of fertilizers, noting that Jordan relies heavily on imports to meet its agricultural input needs. Trade data show that in 2024 the Kingdom imported fertilizers worth USD 60.9 million, including 67,000 tons of nitrogen fertilizers valued at over USD 29 million. This means that any disruption in global markets, shipping, or energy costs quickly translates into higher local production costs.
The problem extends beyond fertilizers. Energy is embedded in nearly every stage of farming — from pumping scarce water and operating machinery, to cooling, storage, and transport. In a water-scarce country, the cost of pumping and delivering irrigation water becomes a decisive factor in farm economics. Rising transport costs further increase the expense of delivering inputs to farms and moving produce to wholesale and retail markets.
According to ELZUBI, these pressures weigh most heavily on small farmers. Large-scale producers can buy inputs in bulk, invest in solar energy, storage, and cooling, and negotiate better terms with suppliers and buyers. Smallholders, by contrast, lack liquidity to secure seasonal inputs, cannot absorb weak harvests or sudden price drops, and risk repeated losses that may force them to reduce cultivated areas, shift activities, or exit farming altogether.
“This is not only a matter of farmers’ income; it is a matter of food security,” ELZUBI warned. The exit of small farmers erodes the domestic production base and increases reliance on external markets, at a time when global supply chains are vulnerable to geopolitical and climate shocks. He argued that responses should move beyond open-ended input subsidies toward efficiency support — expanding solar-powered irrigation, which studies in the Jordan Valley have shown to be economically viable compared to conventional energy.
He called for scaling up precision agriculture and soil analysis to optimize fertilizer use, expanding safe organic alternatives, and promoting collective purchasing of inputs through cooperatives to reduce unit costs and strengthen small farmers’ bargaining power.
ELZUBI also stressed the need for accessible agricultural finance tied to cost-reducing technologies — such as modern irrigation, solar energy, and efficient cooling — alongside the development of agricultural insurance to help farmers withstand climate and price risks. On the marketing side, lowering production costs will not suffice if farmers continue to receive only a small share of the final price. He urged reducing unnecessary intermediaries, strengthening producer markets, contract farming, cold chains, and post-harvest loss reduction.
“The goal is not to shield farmers from competition, but to protect them from inefficiency and shocks they cannot bear alone. Agriculture cannot survive if farmers are left to shoulder, unaided, the risks of fertilizer, energy, water, transport, and climate costs — without adequate tools for negotiation, storage, or finance.”