Project profile — Protection of Farmer Livelihoods - West Bank and Gaza - UN Consolidated Appeal 2012

The project aims to protect livelihoods of livestock-holding families. It is designed to provide emergency in-kind and technical support to prevent further erosion of these families’ productive capacity and asset base. The project is helping sheep and goat farmers maintain their livelihoods by improving their productivity through the provision of animal feed, rehabilitated water cisterns, drought-tolerant seeds, and a range of training to improve their flock management practices. This is one of the projects that make up the United Nations' 2012 Consolidated Appeal Process (CAP) for the West Bank and Gaza. The 2012 CAP allows the international community to help spare Palestinians from the worst effects of the ongoing crisis by delivering humanitarian assistance, increasing the protection of civilians, improving the collection of humanitarian information, and strengthening the United Nations' humanitarian coordination structure. Overall, through this appeal, non-governmental organizations and the United Nations help restore human dignity and alleviate further poverty, institutional weakness, and instability in the West Bank and Gaza.

The expected intermediate outcomes for this project include: Improved livelihoods for vulnerable families in the West Bank and Gaza.

Results achieved as of February 2013 include: (i) 10,000 heads of sheep, belonging to 528 households were artificially inseminated; (ii) 293 households in West Bank received home garden units; (iii) 158 tonnes of drought-tolerant seeds were distributed to 1,116 households to increase the grazing land available to herders; (iv) 2,000 dunums (1 dunum = 1,000 square metres) of drought tolerant seeds were planted, yielding a harvest totalling around 3,500 tonnes of barley seeds and 6,000 tonnes of hay; and (v) six nurseries were renovated so that they can produce drought-intolerant shrubs in order to rehabilitate grazing land and reduce the overall cost of animal feed. These results have contributed to improving animal productivity and improving the conditions of agricultural land and grazing areas.