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Add to Preferred SourcesThe Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has scaled up its conditional cash assistance program to support 1,500 small-scale farmers in the Gaza Strip, each cultivating at least 1 dunum (0.1 ha) of land, according to a press release. The initiative is expected to produce enough fresh vegetables to meet the recommended annual vegetable intake for approximately 100,000 people, based on dietary recommendations from FAO and the World Health Organization (WHO). The program was announced on 16 July 2026 from Jerusalem and Cairo. It is funded by Belgium, the European Union, the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, and other FAO resource partners. The cash assistance is conditional on farmers using the support to cultivate their land.
The 2026 planting season program builds on a 2025 pilot initiative that supported 200 households in producing fresh vegetables. FAO-supported farmers are estimated to have cultivated at least 720 dunums during the pilot. They produced 1,094 metric tonnes of fresh vegetables, including eggplants, hot peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, and molokhia. That output was sufficient to meet the recommended annual vegetable intake of more than 13,000 people. The pilot initiative was funded by the occupied Palestinian territory Humanitarian Fund (oPt HF).
Despite these results, the Gaza Strip agrifood sector’s recovery remains constrained by limited cropland availability. The affordability and local availability of agricultural production inputs also remain low. FAO’s conditional cash allows farmers to purchase scarce and expensive inputs. It enables them to begin planting immediately while awaiting the restoration of commercial imports. The support targets small-scale farmers determined to resume local food production.
“Farmers in the Gaza Strip are determined to resume local food production on every plot and every dunum available for cultivation, even as they are squeezed into rapidly shrinking space. The results of FAO’s recent pilot in the Strip are clear: FAO’s conditional cash enables farmers to purchase for scarce and expensive inputs, and begin planting immediately, while awaiting the restoration of commercial imports of essential agricultural inputs,” said Ciro Fiorillo, Head of Office, FAO West Bank and Gaza Strip. He noted that one-off approvals for private sector and humanitarian actors to bring production inputs into Gaza are not sufficient. Farmers, herders, and fishers must be able to access land, sea, and a variety of production inputs. These include seeds, fertilizers, irrigation equipment, animal feed, veterinary supplies, fertilized eggs, boats, and fishing gear.
Fiorillo emphasized that the commercial sector is best placed to supply the right combination of inputs at the right time for farmers. He called for the full and unrestricted entry of agricultural production items into the Gaza Strip. This should begin with the liberalization of at least non-dual-use items by local importers specialized in food production. These importers had active trade relationships with local suppliers, were registered before the conflict, and remain active. The scaled-up program is projected to sustain food production over the next year.