Rainfed agroecosystem resilience in the Palestinian West Bank, 1918–2017

Abstract

Research has shown that rai-fed (Baʿlī) cultivation provides a resilient agroecological structure. Recent work in agroecology has refined our understanding of agroecosystem resilience, but both temporal and geographical scales are often limited. Due to largely inaccessible and dwindling water resources, an examination of change at the scale of an agroecological landscape is required to better understand how rainfed agroecosystems remain resilient over an extensive period of time. Our article examines the relationship between agroecological landscape change and resilience in the face of powerful socialeconomic transformations. Our study combines the novel approach of geospatial, field and interview data in order to understand the long-term resilience of an entire agroecological landscape in the Palestinian West Bank. We argue that the study area has experienced a high level of resilience for over 70 years, perhaps for as long as 100 years, and this resilience is attributed not to a stability in production practices, but to a dynamism in practices that have enabled cultivators to adapt to broader political-economic shifts. In doing so, the paper calls for attention within agroecology and food systems research to the dynamism and resilience found within rainfed agroecosystems.

A social perennial vision: Transdisciplinary inquiry for the future of diverse, perennial grain agriculture

“…The team is learning to carry out their research in a way that responsibly values and equitably shares human labor and ecospheric care work. In particular, they recognize and credit the knowledge held and shared by Palestinian women farmers (Tesdell et al, 2019). (Tesdell et al, 2020).…”

“…The knowledge held and lessons shared by Global South practitioners may be especially important to agroecological transformation. In Palestine, the Makaneyyat project demonstrates a social perennial vision for agricultural landscape change through scientific and community-based research and education (Tesdell et al, 2019).…”

New Food Crop Domestication in the Age of Gene Editing: Genetic, Agronomic and Cultural Change Remain Co-evolutionarily Entangled

“…In Palestine, site of some of the earliest plant and animal domestication, wild plant gathering has continued to support human communities for millennia (Ali-Shtayeh et al, 2008;Eghbarieh, 2017;Research Collaborative, 2018). Wild food plants (Table 2) are important for traditional Palestinian cuisine and for sustenance during climatic and political crises (Tesdell et al, 2019). Palestinian people already value these plants in social, economic, and culinary terms (Tukan et al, 1998;Marouf et al, 2015).…”

Hope in the ruins: Seeds, plants, and possibilities of regeneration

“…Sansour, variously described as an anthropologist, activist, and eco-farmer, is an articulate spokesperson for reviving a set of historical practices that are also insightfully approached in a more academic fashion. While Sansour emphasizes the artistry and aesthetics of distinctive seeds and the power of their foods produced from them to create a sense of belonging, Tesdell and his research group (Tesdell et al., 2018) bring an historical approach to a shared concern with agroecology and the contemporary position of farming under occupation. They criticize the idea that rainfed agriculture was necessarily unchanged over millennia; according to this literature, “Most of this literature emphasizes the ‘primitive’ practices of cultivators and sometimes extends into the primitive nature of the cultivators themselves” (2018: 4).…”