NARC incubator for agricultural innovation, entrepreneurship launched

AMMAN — HRH Princess Basma Bint Ali on Thursday attended the launch of the National Agricultural Research Centre’s (NARC) incubator for agricultural innovation and entrepreneurship, meant to provide technical, legal and commercial support for young entrepreneurs, farmers, food manufacturers and home businesses.

The incubator is part of the French-funded Smart Development of Eco-Friendly Solutions and Economic Regional Agricultural Techniques (Smart Desert) project sponsored by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

"Jordan is a key partner in the region. As such, France, bilaterally and as a member state of the European Union, is actively involved in supporting the country in recovering from the pandemic and adapting to climatic and environmental challenges," said French Ambassador in Amman Veronique Vouland-Aneini. 

Welcoming its inauguration at NARC, Laurent Duriez, the director of AFD Amman office, said that the incubator will play a critical role in developing and transferring the know-how to farmers in Jordan. 

"The Smart Desert project pursues a sustainable economic model that will expand the project's scope in the future, relying on a public-private partnership," he added.

The secretary general of the Ministry of Agriculture, Mohammad Hiyari, described the incubator as a strategic project and said that it is consistent with the recently launched national agricultural plan.

He thanked the project’s donors and partners for choosing NARC to be the national government partner responsible for implementing this project.

The project manager, Ali Hayajneh, indicated that the Smart Desert project aims to make “a paradigm shift” in the agricultural sector by empowering vulnerable Jordanians and Syrian refugees in the agricultural sector in the northern and eastern highlands by increasing their income, creating new job opportunities and improving their working conditions.

He said that the project focuses on smart agriculture, efficient irrigation, proper crop selection and the use of non-conventional water resources.

NARC Director General Nizar Haddad said that the incubator is a translation of the directives of His Majesty the King, who recently said: "We want a future of excellence and creativity, that is open to change and development, accepts new ideas, and embraces diversity..."

AFD has provided a €10 million grant for the Smart Desert project which is hoped to serve 500 agricultural home-based projects and 200 farms in the northern and eastern Jordanian highlands. 

The project is being implemented under the leadership of the IUCN as part of a coalition that brings together Bluemont, Horizons for Green Environment, GreenTech, and Inter-Islamic Network on Water Resources Development and Management (INWRDAM), in partnership with NARC.