Indonesian Journal of Science & Technology 4 (2) (2019) 196-203

Indonesian Journal of Science & Technology
Journal homepage: http://ejournal.upi.edu/index.php/ijost/

High Unemployment Records of Graduated Students in
the Development of Urban Agriculture in the Gaza Strip
Husam Al-Najar 1*, Hadi Khalil 1, Yuni Sri Rahayu 2
1

Faculty of Science, Disaster Management Master Program. The Islamic University of Gaza, P.O. Box 108 Gaza
Strip, Palestine.
2
Biology Department, Faculty of Mathematic and Sciences, Universitas Negeri Surabaya. Indonesia.
Correspondence: E-mail: halnajar@iugaza.edu.ps

ABSTRACT

ARTICLE INFO

Urban agriculture plays a significant role in national
development by contributing towards food security, job
creation, and income generation. This study aims to assess
the effect of unemployment records in graduated students
in the recovery of the agricultural sector and the input to
food security. A combination of both quantitative and
qualitative research methods was employed in this study. In
the quantitative design, 129 randomly selected urban
farmers, completed the self-administered close-ended
questionnaires, whereas the statistical analysis presents the
socio-demographic, economic, and other aspects of the
households. Based on the study result, around 2500 students
graduated annually from 29 high educational institutes in
Gaza Strip. The unemployment rate is around 41%, therefore
the graduated students found that urban agriculture is
contributing to create more jobs opportunities and
improving household income. The analysis showed that 18%
of the urban farmers are illiterate, 31% passed primary
education, 25% passed secondary education, and 26% are
holding university degrees in different fields. It is highly
recommend to include urban agriculture in the future plans
of the ministry of labours, ministry of agriculture, and all
relevant institutions to overcome the high unemployment
records and to alleviate poverty in Gaza.

Article History:
Submitted/Received 24 Oct 2018
First revised 22 Jan 2019
Accepted 22 May 2019
First available online 24 May 2019
Received 16date
Aug 01
2018
Publication
Sep 2019
Revised 20 Aug 2018
Accepted 25 Aug 2018
Available onlin9 Sep 2018

© 2019 Tim Pengembang Jurnal UPI

____________________
Keywords
Keywords:
Gaza Strip,
Graduated students,
Urban agriculture,
Unemployment.

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1. INTRODUCTION
Gaza Strip is a small stretch of land
bordering the Mediterranean Sea. The size of
Gaza is 365 km2 (46 km in length and 6-10 km
in width). The population has increased
dramatically over the last 60 years: from
about 50,000 in 1948 to an estimated 2
million today, making Gaza to be one of the
most highly populated areas in the world
(Yolsal-Çevikbilen and Taymaz, 2012).
However, it was found by the Gaza Food
Security Cluster report in 2015 that most
households defined as food insecure,
approximately 47%, in Gaza experience
chronic food insecurity. This is a sign of a
long-term food crises and a depletion of
coping mechanisms and resilience if it is kept
away from a proper solutions and
interventions.
Agriculture can generate incomes and
create more jobs, can improve food security
status, and contribute to poverty alleviation.
In Gaza Strip, agriculture has gone through
phases of expansion and land reduction. The
cultivated area increased from 170 to 198
km2 from 1966 to 1968. The cultivated area
was reduced to 179 km2 in 1978; also the
forest areas and sand dunes were reduced
from 32% to 22% mainly due to the increase
in urban areas, or in other words, due to the
urbanization expanding (Biradar, 2009).
In fact, agriculture in Gaza experiences
critical problems. Increasing pressure on land
and water limit the capacity today, and even
more the potentials of the sector tomorrow.
Furthermore, the community is confronted
with a lack of significant alternative
employment and export potentials in the
other economic sectors. This awareness and
the recognition of the gravity of the situation
led to look for alternatives to gain minor
improvements. Thus, urban agriculture has
come to be seen as incorporating important
potentials for the future of Gazan agriculture
(Nachmani, 1997).

| DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17509/ijost.v4i2.18176

The price of fresh fruits and vegetables
are very expensive in Gaza Strip, given that
the lands available for horticulture is very
limited and with the on-going blocked and
restrictions on land accessibility in place. At
the same time, the population continues to
grow at over 3% annually; putting additional
pressure on the resources in one of the most
densely inhabited areas of the world.
Meanwhile, the very high level of
urbanization in Gaza made the lands
available for cultivations in Gaza very limited
(Costello, 2009).
The production of urban farming can be
defined as a “crisis induced strategy” under
such economic circumstances, ensuring
survival of the poorer segment of the
population. Jakarta, the Capital of Indonesia,
can be considered as an example in the
recent history that its people managed to
create a survival strategy during periods of
economic decline and civil unrest in densely
populated cities. In 1997, millions of people
were vulnerable to food insecurity in
Indonesia due to the economic disturbance,
as they were left without enough money to
buy sufficient food (Clover, 2003). In
response to this, people engaged in urban
agriculture and started producing food on
small and vacant fields all over the city, even
the former public parks were transformed
into gardens, while government officials
encouraged the people of Jakarta to grow
their own food.
Household income, total expenses, food
consumption, share of total expenditure on
food, calorie consumption, and the status of
nutritional are also important measures to
the food security status of a household
(Wolfe and Frongillo, 2001). Similar situation
in Gaza Strip, socioeconomically crisis and
high unemployment records lead to invest in
urban agriculture. Based on our previous
study (Al-Najar and El Hamarneh, 2019),
therefore the main aim of this research is
investigate the socio-cultural conditions and

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Husam Al-Najar, et al. High Unemployment Records of Graduated Students in...| 198

job opportunities could be saved by
implementing appropriate urban agriculture
concepts.
2. MATERIALS AND METHODS
In this study, we exploited both primary
and secondary sources of data to collect the
necessary and appropriate data. Thus, a
combination of qualitative and quantitative
data has been used as an input for the
evaluation of the role of urban agriculture on
food security. In light of this, interview and
survey questionnaire have been used as the
primary data gathering tools. The secondary
sources include the use of journals, books,
statistics and web pages.
Survey questionnaires have been
administered to a sample of individual
producers to gather the necessary
quantitative information required for
assessing the contributions of urban
agriculture in reducing urban food insecurity
at the household level.
Then the data has been analyzed using
the statistical package for the social sciences
(SPSS Ver. 20). This software is typically used
in understanding social science analysis
(Haristiani et al., 2017). Descriptive statistics,
cross tabulations, including frequency
counts, percentages, and other relevant data
analyses presentation forms have been
utilized in the study.
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1. Level of Education of the Respondents
Around 85.3% of the respondents
"farmers" are males, while 14.7% of them are
females. It is clearly shown that percentage
of men is much higher than the women’s as
it is not easy to reach out to the women in
Gaza households due to religious and cultural
considerations. Furthermore, men are

| DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17509/ijost.v4i2.18176

responsible for the management of the filed
works like seeding, tillage, irrigation,
application of fertilizers and pesticides. While
the work of the women limited to the harvest
of the product and in many cases selling in
the market. Therefore, in the peasant
society, personal contacts and external
relations are the men responsibility.
Moreover, about 1% of the farmers are
under the age of 20 years, 27.1% are from 2130 years, 34.1% are from "31-40" years, and
38% of them are aged more than 41 years. It
is concluded that the percent of youth
amongst the respondents is a relatively high,
because Urban Agriculture can be considered
as a main source of income.
The percentage of 0-17 years accounted
for 48% in Gaza Strip, and the percentage of
18-29 years accounted for 23.2% while the
age of 60 years and over accounted for 4.3%
of the total population of Gaza Strip.
Concerning the level of education, as
shown in Figure 1, 17.8% of the urban
farmers are illiterate, 31% passed primary
education, 24.8% passed Secondary
education, and 26.4% hold university degrees
in different fields (Figure 1).
The educational level of the urban
agriculture practitioners targeted in this
study considerably varies from the one that
is illiterate to the level of university graduate.
The 26.4% of farmers who hold university
degree explain to some extend the
unemployment records in the field of their
specialization in the different field such as
education, industry and construction
engineering. This situation demonstrates
people from different background of life are
involved in urban agriculture using it either as
a major source of livelihood, or additional
source of livelihood or the adaptive or coping
strategy.

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Figure 1. Level of education for the respondents.
Illiteracy is more prevalent among
females than males since there were 3.4% of
the total number of Palestinian males aged
15 years and over and 9.5% of the total
number of Palestinian females of the same
age group. The highest concentration of
illiteracy was at rural areas 20.6% followed by
refugee camps 6.9% and urban areas 6.1%.
For the uneducated farmers, reportedly
they immerse in the Urban Agriculture as it is
not easy for them to get another
opportunities in the different sectors in Gaza
strip due to present economic hardships and
the high rate of unemployment. According to
the ILO report 1972, to be uneducated young
is the worst of all possible circumstances
from the point of view of seeking work.
In literature regarding the relation
between the education and food security,
they found that hunger is highly correlated
with the illiterate people (Rosegrant and
Cline, 2003). In the research case study, only
17.8% of the respondents have no formal
education while most of the respondents
received some form of education which
implies that the level of food security in the
case study should be relatively high.
However, the level of food insecurity in Gaza
strip is still high as the education does not
protect the people from the impact of
economic crisis that Gaza experience since
many years. Mutisya et al. (2016) stated that
| DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17509/ijost.v4i2.18176

investment in the education of the slum
households may, in the long term, contribute
to reduction in the prevalence of food
insecurity. The probability of being food
insecure decreased by 0.019 for a unit
increase in the average years of schooling for
a given household. The effect of education,
remained significant even after controlling
for household wealth index, a more
proximate determinant of food security in a
cash-based economy such as the urban
slums.
In the study area, it was noted from the
survey that the non-educated urban farmers
were hesitated while completing the
questionnaire. This can be considered a big
challenge for those researchers who use
questionnaires for their study as it may effect
on the credibility of the study.
3.2. Monthly Income of the Respondents
The data analysis shows that the
monthly income urban farmers ranges from
30-700 USD per month with a mean of 200
USD, median of 150 USD, and standard
deviation of 170 USD. The income believed to
be much more of what the respondents
reported, as they focus on cash and export
crops which make large income. However,
while performing the survey, it was noted
that the urban farmers were behaving in a
way to draw the attention and the sympathy
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of the INGOs/NGOs seeking for more support
and more benefits form the fund donations.
According to Zhou, et al. (2019), the income
status of the household influences the level
of food security, while the poverty, which
decreases purchasing power at the
household level, is considered as a main
factor to food insecurity. Premanandh (2011)
stated that The global food situation is
redefined by many driving forces such as
population growth, availability of arable
lands, water resources, climate change and
food availability, accessibility and loss. The
combined effect of these factors has
undeniably impacted
global
food
production and security.
Since the International poverty line
varies between 1.25 and 2.50 USD per person
per day (the poverty line in Palestine is 1.8
USD, the majority of the urban agriculture
practitioners in the area of the study are not
suffering from poverty, taking into
consideration that approximately 39% of
Gaza people are suffering from poverty.
Noticeably, farmers did not pay for water as
an asset, but only pay for the operation of
pumping (Al-Najar, 2011). Thus, the low
farms input cost makes them profitable and
explains the sensible income of the urban
farmers, and therefore the household food
security status sounds good. However, water
security is questionable in the long run if the
current practice is continued, due to the very
high consumption of irrigated water for the
crops which are cultivated in green-houses,
particularly strawberry which consume more
than 1150 m3/dunam/year.

| DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17509/ijost.v4i2.18176

3.3. Main reason for respondents to start
urban agriculture
As shown in Figure 2, the unemployment
was ranked as the first reason for the
respondents to start urban agriculture with
63% in the area of the study. It is clearly
shown that the respondents aim to have job
opportunities by practicing urban agriculture
to improve their income and therefore the
food security will be improved.
Low income was ranked as the second
reason with 59.1%. It is also noted that the
household low food supply plays in
important role to motivate the respondents
to start urban agriculture with 52.8% in the
area of survey. However, only 15.7% started
the urban agriculture to obtain safer food.
Also, the key informant responses to the
interview question on the reason to engage
in urban agriculture reveals that the
households are practicing urban agriculture
due to unemployment problems and low
income.
The urban farmers behavior agree with
study conducted by Al-Najar (2014), where
Urban agriculture development started after
the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip in 2007
where many families lost their work
opportunities in the city. Beside the return of
farmers to their land which had created
seasonal jobs, the government in Gaza Strip
also offers the state-owned for farmers to
enhance the agricultural sector and
therefore to minimize the unemployment
records.

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Figure 2. The respondents’ reason to start urban agriculture.
This result compatibles with the result of
the study of Zezza and Tasciotti (2010); when
reveals that urban agriculture can be a main
or a secondary source of income, can directly
provide access to large number of
nutritionally rich foods at the household level
(fruit, vegetable, meat) and can improve the
of household food consumption stability.
Finally, it was also found that education
level is a major factor that encourages
involvement in urban agriculture as 82.2% of
the respondents received some form of
education while only 17.8% of the
respondents have no formal education.
26.4% of the educated urban farmers have
university degrees, but due to the high level
of unemployment given the bad economic
situation, they were forced to engage in
urban agriculture as their source of income.
A good indicator of household food
security level, the average daily income of
the urban farmers was acceptable to some
extent as it was above the poverty line.
Monthly income for them ranges from 30 to
700 USD, with a mean of 170 USD.
One of the major findings of the study is
the revelation that those who are engaged in
urban agriculture started due to one or more
of the following: low food supply at the

| DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17509/ijost.v4i2.18176

household level (52.8%), low income (59.1%),
unemployment (63%), and low food safety
for foods available to their household
(15.7%). Based on Rezai et al. (2014) that
food security can be derived from urban
agriculture since it provides sufficient
quantities of food, appropriate nutrition,
cost-effective food supplies and reduction
in food bills.
4. CONCLUSION
Around 2500 students graduated
annually from 29 high educational institute in
the Gaza Strip. The unemployment is around
42%, therefore the graduated students found
that urban agriculture is contributing to
create more jobs opportunities and
improving household income. It is highly
recommend to include urban agriculture in
the future plans of the ministry of labours,
ministry of agriculture and all relevant
institutions to overcome the high
unemployment records and to alleviate
poverty in the Gaza vulnerable economy.
5. AUTHORS’ NOTE
The authors declares that there is no
conflict of interest regarding the publication
of this article. Authors confirmed that the
data and the paper are free of plagiarism.

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