The ministry of agriculture’s intention to rent agricultural lands in southern Russia has been criticized over scepticism of its success, mainly after the failure of a similar project in Sudan.

This project aims at meeting some of the kingdom’s needs for the wheat, according to the General Secretary’s Assistant of the Environmental Projects at the Ministry of Agriculture, Engineer Mohammad Al-Fawaeer.

In response to the judgement of the possible failure of such project, as in what happened in Sudan, Fawaeer, who was among the ministerial team headed to Russia to study the project, has told AmmanNet that it is wrong to judge the project as a failure beforehand. He drew attention to  the reasons for the failure of the Sudan project, which were due to logistic factors.

From his side, Wasfi Al-Rawashdeh, the President of the Agricultural Committee in the Parliament, described the project as ‘ironic’. He told AmmanNet that the project would increase the burden on the kingdom’s treasury without any positive effect on the national side. Rawashdeh pointed out that the governmental investment in Sudan,  consisting of more than 280,000 acres, were left untouched.

On another hand, Jordanian Agricultural Union General Manager Mohammad Al-Owran told AmmanNet that the current reform government should serve the general agricultural sector in Jordan instead of serving particular people.

The ministry of agriculture previously announced the forming of a specialised committee from both the public and private sector to study the economic feasibility and establish a joint venture company with the Russian side. This would allow them to invest in specified lands in the south of Russia to plant wheat.