During the week of April 30 to May 4, eight engineers and agronomists from the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) conducted a training course on “Localized Irrigation of Citrus Crops” taught remotely by the Center for Lifelong Learning from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) in collaboration with Fundación Promoción Social.
This second course complements the previous one carried out last February on “Physiology of citrus fruits”, which included questions such as The plant, Botanical and agronomic classification, Soil, Mineral nutrition and fertilization, Sprouting and flowering techniques, Techniques of fruit setting and development, Physiological alterations, and Maturation and senescence techniques.
Although they were initially designed for face-to-face celebration on the UPV campus, the courses had to be held remotely, due to the Israeli authorities denying the corresponding exit requests for the Erez border crossing and transit through its territory to Jordan to be able to move to Valencia.
Both courses are carried out in the framework of the project “Improving food security in the Gaza Strip through the rehabilitation of agricultural land and greenhouses” funded by the Regional Government of Valencia, under the format of Training of Trainers, by which the eight UAWC agronomists and engineers have in turn trained the farmers of the Local Committees in the northern Gaza Strip.
These eight UAWC engineers and agronomists carried out the training of farmers in the field of “Physiology of citrus fruits” during the month of April, while the training in “Localized irrigation of citrus crops” was made during the month of May, using all the knowledge and documentation obtained in the courses of the UPV.
The training was the third component of the project, complementing the two previous components of rehabilitation of agricultural land and rehabilitation of greenhouses in the northern third of the Gaza Strip (localities of Beit Lehia, Jabalia, and Beit Hanoun).