What are you doing about the food shortage — and why were no grain silos ever built in the Palestinian territories?

Omar Shaban

The Russian war in Ukraine is certainly not confined to military operations; it extends to averting shortages of foodstuffs — above all wheat, cooking oil, and the other basic materials humanity absolutely cannot do without. Most of the world's countries, if not all, hold stocks sufficient for only a few months. The dilemma is that many countries will be unable to buy what they need in the coming period. Just as a bitter struggle broke out between countries — even allied ones — to obtain protective supplies against the coronavirus, states, backed by their security agencies, have begun searching to buy what wheat, oils, and the rest they can. Because of the war on Ukrainian soil, the coming harvest season will be very low. Some countries have actually begun building grain silos; others have switched to planting wheat in place of other crops.

On the Palestinian side — what are we counting on to avert the expected food-shortage crisis? On the occupation's sympathy and its obligations as an occupying power? On its concern for stability in the Palestinian territories, which would compel it to supply what we need? Do we possess the financial resources to buy wheat at doubled prices? Do we have a plan to help the marginalised and vulnerable classes face the soaring prices and heavy inflation? Do we have close relations with the wheat-producing states such as Russia, and with wealthy states that would help us buy wheat and the rest — bearing in mind the financial crisis the Authority has suffered for years, which continues and deepens daily?

According to the statistics, per-capita Palestinian consumption of wheat is about 10 kilograms a month. Total consumption in the Palestinian market thus reaches 700,000 tonnes, of which only 10% is produced locally — meaning the gap between consumption and production reaches 90%, an enormous gap by no means easy to cover.

Wheat is a strategic commodity indispensable to human beings. Investing in strengthening the Palestinian citizen's steadfastness necessarily means providing basic materials and health, education, and social-care services. Although 20% of the public budget is nominally allocated to supporting the agricultural sector, what is actually spent does not exceed 25% of that share — 75% of actual spending goes to salaries and operating expenses, while only about 17% of actual spending goes to agricultural development projects.

And because no precaution was taken against such crises by building storage silos, reliance falls on traders and suppliers — who are under no obligation and are disinclined to invest in storage, since storage is very costly: it means freezing capital and providing a suitable storage environment.

The question that poses itself: why, across 25 years, was the building of silos for grain, fuel, and the rest never on the political system's agenda, despite the enormity of international funding exceeding 35 billion dollars? And why were grain crops — above all wheat — fodder, and livestock-raising never supported?

We must move quickly, before it is too late, to set a strategy for confronting the coming crisis: offering farmers incentives to plant wheat despite low profitability, providing compensation programmes for farmers' accumulated losses, and building storage silos in partnership with the private sector and the banking sector, which holds 16 billion dollars in deposits, among other measures.

We return and ask the governing Palestinian system in Gaza and Ramallah: what are you going to do?