Hadeel Abu Ayesh
26 years old, married, living with her husband and two kids at Al-Maghazi in the Middle area, is a farmer as they practice family farming at the East border, which isn’t easily accessed, unfenced, and vulnerable to Israeli recurrent escalations causing regular crops damage and restrictions for the allowed crops’ items (not exceeding 1 meter); they cultivate seasonable crops (okra, eggplant, beans, wheat), and raising poultry is their primary source of food and income. They need help with the market; their products are sold at low prices; sometimes, when there are no market channels, they give products to relatives and friends for free. Hadeels’s agricultural experiences are mainly inherited; she is passionate about learning more via YouTube. However, she graduated from the law faculty; she was used to working as a lawyer, participating in awareness-raising workshops advocating for women’s rights and gender-based violence, Hadeel’s small agri-business is also struggling with the adverse effects of climate change, such as the spread of harmful insects and uncontrolled plant diseases, long time of drought, and changing seasons, resulting in crop losses, low productivity, high costs, and low profits; in addition to the reliance on underground
irrigation, and the need for more energy consumption for pumping causing increasing costs.
At the start of 2023, Hadeel joined UWAF; the UWAF coordination committee helped her identify her small agri-enterprise needs in facing the adverse effects of climate change. GUPAP provided her with the spray pump used for insects’ preventive spraying to avoid transmitted diseases; they used to rent a pump, costing 500 NIS each season; this has helped them alleviate burdens and lend it to other neighbor farmers.
Hadeel also benefited from the capacity-sharing sessions, addressing learning technical topics,
such as how to prepare the land solar sterilization, which was a new experience, and compost
manufacturing as she knew how to use crop and herbivore waste to manufacture high-quality
fertilizer and not use poultry waste directly, and appropriate fertilizer for soil and nutrients
elements they lack. Hadeel has the chance to share experiences and know women agriprenuers
practicing family farming in her region and others.
