Olive Pruning Workshop
Olive pruning workshop for village leaders in Palestine
Olives are one of the most important crops in Palestine. Thanks to your donations, CORE invited a highly qualified international expert in pruning from the Bari Institute for a Train the Trainers workshop February 2016.
Olives are important in Palestine for economic, social and health reasons, yet the crop varies and lean years can be 1/5 the yield of good years. Through proper and effective pruning the difference in crop yields and the financial disruption for farm families can be balanced.
CORE invited a highly qualified international expert in pruning from the Bari Institute for a Train the Trainers workshop that took place February 20-26, 2016. The Italian expert, Dr. Michele Tucci, trained 30 Palestinian extensionists and leader farmers, who will then teach the 1500 PFTA olive farmers and others.
The educational material presented will become a manual for future trainings. Palestinian farmers are eager to improve their pruning skills using the research and experience of international experts that have been denied them because of the enforced isolation of the occupation.
Here is a report from an observer on the ground in Palestine: It was so great! I definitely learned so much!! The expert was having a great time, gave presentation about how to prune with the farmers very attentive and eager to learn. The second day we all went out to the field to do some practical hands-on learning.
The expert was surprised to find out that our farmers basically already had it down! Many knew what they were doing, impressing the expert very much; he was very pleased. And some newcomer farmers definitely got a lot of good experience with the expert right there guiding them.
Everyone was engaged discussing the different topics and ways to prune. We completed the learning session on the third day by going over some olive tree diseases, helping the farmers understand what's out there and how to treat it.
Now each of these farmers are going to go back to their own villages and create their own workshops to spread the word and knowledge. It was really a fantastic and very successful experience for everyone. I was so happy I got to be a part of it.