Rehabilitation and provision of productive assets and inputs for farmers in Area C, suffering from the occupat

Objectives

The project is an HRP 2020 endorsed project that will contribute to the HRP strategic objectives 2 and 3, the HF allocation strategy objective 1 for the West Bank under the normal track and the Food Security cluster objective in the WB. It will do so by Rehabilitation and provision of productive assets and inputs for farmers owns lands in Area C located in 3 villages in Tulkarem governorates who face specific challenges to cultivate their lands due to different measures imposed by the occupation regime including settler violence, demolition, confiscation, the wall, etc. The project is based on a needs assessment conducted by PUI and UAWC in September 2020 that identified the most pressing needs of vulnerable farmers working in area C close to the wall or settlements. In addition, PUI coordinated with FSS, MoA Central and MoA directorates of Qalqilya and Tulkarem, in order to identify and prioritize FSS needs and localities in these 2 governorates. In order to respond to the identified needs and to contribute to the HRP, HF and cluster objectives of this second allocation, PUI and UAWC will provide 2 types of assistance: - Provide1.5 kilometer of water carrier lines to ensure the delivery of water from the resources to the agricultural lands. The support will include the delivery of water carrier lines while the Village Council will contribute to provide additional inputs for the success of this activity. This activity will reach to 80 farmers in total. - Support 120 vulnerable farmers working in lands adjacent to the settlements or the wall and whose livelihoods are threatened by occupation measures. Agricultural roads will be rehabilitated (4 km), which will increase a safe access to lands and contribute to preventing land confiscations. Additional 10 farmers will receive land rehabilitation support to increase their production capacity. The project will also provide cisterns to other 3 farmers to enhance the supplementary irrigation to trees and crops in their lands In total, 213 farmers households (1022 individuals) will benefit directly from the Action. Selection criteria for those farmers will depend mainly on the socio-economic vulnerability criteria. It will look also on technical criteria including topography of the land, slope percentage, soil depth, land ownership, and planted trees (in addition to protection considerations, including IHL violations, close to settlement, the wall, and access restricted areas). The project will be implemented in partnership with UAWC and each organization will bring their expertise to the partnership: UAWC supporting agriculture from a development perspective focusing on water activities and PUI rehabilitating lands and assets, easing access and providing support to farmers with a protection lens through emergency and protective responses to settler-related incidents. Furthermore, the project will complement the Action of the West Bank Protection Consortium by covering a need gap in the provision of assistance and livelihood support to vulnerable farmers in Area C. Besides, PUI will mobilize its Consortium experience (tools, methodology, network) to be operational at different stages of the project.