04:42Strawberries fields forever! Palestinian agricultural Engr manages to plant berries out of charcoal
Despite the lack of resources and being under threat of eviction, Shady Mustafa Atatreh, an agricultural engineer from Ya'bad town in Jenin, managed to successfully plant strawberries in charcoal soil.
"This is the first experiment of planting in charcoal in the world; of course, we are talking about growing strawberries because planting on charcoal hasn't been officially practised yet," Atatreh said.
The agronomist conducted several experiments with his friend, Doctor Hisham Hajjaj, before they figured out a way to use charcoal as soil despite its high alkalinity.
"This is hydroponic agriculture, which we have transformed – along with charcoal planting – into aquaponics," Atatreh explained.
Atatreh is using small pieces of charcoal to create a soft similar-to-soil powder, the main source of raw materials is the remains of charcoal in the coal merchants' stores.
"The project begins in October where the planting process usually takes place between September 15 and October 15. However, this year we planted the seedings on November 1 because we had difficulties in providing the required quantities of powdered charcoal (biochar)," he added.
According to the agricultural enginees' experiments, within the next year, they would be able to double the production.
"We expect, according to studies, that our production per dunum will be doubled. Usually, each dunum produces 7-10 tons of strawberries," he said.
Alongside many Palestinian houses in Jenin, Shady Mustafa Atatreh is under the threat of demolition by Israeli authorities.
"As you can see we built a room to be able to save the equipment as you can see, nevertheless, they might come at any given moment and ask us to remove everything. This is something likely to happen at any moment," he concluded.
04:42Despite the lack of resources and being under threat of eviction, Shady Mustafa Atatreh, an agricultural engineer from Ya'bad town in Jenin, managed to successfully plant strawberries in charcoal soil.
"This is the first experiment of planting in charcoal in the world; of course, we are talking about growing strawberries because planting on charcoal hasn't been officially practised yet," Atatreh said.
The agronomist conducted several experiments with his friend, Doctor Hisham Hajjaj, before they figured out a way to use charcoal as soil despite its high alkalinity.
"This is hydroponic agriculture, which we have transformed – along with charcoal planting – into aquaponics," Atatreh explained.
Atatreh is using small pieces of charcoal to create a soft similar-to-soil powder, the main source of raw materials is the remains of charcoal in the coal merchants' stores.
"The project begins in October where the planting process usually takes place between September 15 and October 15. However, this year we planted the seedings on November 1 because we had difficulties in providing the required quantities of powdered charcoal (biochar)," he added.
According to the agricultural enginees' experiments, within the next year, they would be able to double the production.
"We expect, according to studies, that our production per dunum will be doubled. Usually, each dunum produces 7-10 tons of strawberries," he said.
Alongside many Palestinian houses in Jenin, Shady Mustafa Atatreh is under the threat of demolition by Israeli authorities.
"As you can see we built a room to be able to save the equipment as you can see, nevertheless, they might come at any given moment and ask us to remove everything. This is something likely to happen at any moment," he concluded.