AMMAN — A number of farmers on Sunday organized a
sit-in demanding the cancelation or postponing of a decision to include foreign
workers in the social security system and reversing an increase in work permit fees.
اضافة اعلان
Farmers proceeded to the
Parliament after holding
their sit-in at the
Ministry of Labor, where they could not meet with any
ministry official, according to farmers who spoke with Jordan News on Monday.
Ibrahim Sharif, president of Jordan Farmers Union said
the protesters were invited into Parliament and held a meeting with House
Speaker Abdul Kareem Al-Doghmi, who listened to their demands and requested a
ten-day period to discuss their grievances with the concerned officials.
Sunday’s sit-in was one of a series of efforts by
farmers to voice their sector’s challenges, aggravated in the aftermath of the
COVID-19 pandemic. The sector has been suffering the closure of the Syrian
border, which accesses Eastern Europe; one of the major markets for Jordanian
produce, according to Sharif.
Furthermore, 25,000 green houses in the Jordan Valley used to produce
vegetables for Eastern European markets under contracts that have been canceled
following the Syrian border closure.
Sharif also called for finding a sustainable water management strategy
to avoid water shortages that would affect the consistency of the yearly
produce.
Famers also complained about the fluctuation in the
prices of their produce, which oftentimes drops to less than production cost,
stressing the need to assign maximal and minimal prices as a measure to create
balance and protect farmers and consumers alike.
They
stressed that the agricultural sector is “the backbone of the national
economy”, and that any challenges to this sector would negatively affect all
economic sectors.
On the farmers’ complaints against social security
subscription,
Social Security Corporation (SSC) spokesman, Shaman Majali, said the
SSC has postponed its decision to enforce mandatory subscription on all farmers
to be effective as of 2023 in light of the challenges they currently face. The
decision was part of a general strategy to include all workers in the system
under the Agriculture Workers Bylaw which went effective in May this year.
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