Do-It-Yourself Farmer Grows Strawberries In The Air
The West Bank resident liked the elevated, computerized planters funded by USAID. But he wanted to figure out a way to build the system without relying on grants.
Hezam Kittani didn't want U.S. handouts to help him grow strawberries.
He wanted to be a do-it-yourself berry farmer — and to teach others to follow in his footsteps.
Strawberries were barely grown in the West Bank, where Kittani lives, before 2009. Today they're a 250-ton yearly crop. And that's because of $705,358 in grants from USAID for farmers in this "lower middle income region" (as classified by the World Bank).
The USAID money offered a and peat moss.
