Estimated Areas And Production of Vegetables in Palestine between 1934-1935 and 1944-1945 before Nakba, British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume I - Page 312. Chapter IX: Agriculture: Section 1: Agriculture Production: (a) Climate and Soils (b) Crops and Cropping: Table 3

CHAPTER IX.

8. Vegetable growing has made remarkable strides since the outbreak of the World War and there has been a great advance in variety, quantity and quality. Good supplies of all kinds of European vegetables such as cabbages, cauliflowers, kohlrabi, beans, peas, tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, beets, radishes, etc. are available during the winter and the early spring months. During the warmer summer months, beans, cucumbers, marrows, pumpkins, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, ochra, etc. are abundant. There is, however, a scarcity period from August to mid-November when climatic conditions are unsuitable for production but the period is being narrowed by the planting of early and late varieties. Vegetable seeds were also produced of a large scale during the war by the Department of Agriculture.

Table 3.

ESTIMATED AREAS AND PRODUCTION OF VEGETABLES IN 1934-35 AND 1944-45.

I 1934•35 I 1944-45

Dunums Tons Dunums Tone

Cabbages } 8,869 18,080
Cauliflower 12,811 18,891
Tomatoes 82,246 17,286 80,801 60,457
Lettuce t 2,280 2,974
Carrots . 7,896 18,998
Beets 1,921 8,678
Cucumber 17,877 8,022 26,597 19,606
Marrows I 17,807 11,877
Eggplant I 10,858 15,852
Peppers 8,649 2,776
Ochre, 9,857 4,202 9. The growing of potatoes, although comparatively a new venture, is now practised on a very large scale and the potato has become an important article in the Arab diet. Seed has to be imported annually from the United Kingdom as the locally grown seed degenerates rapidly. The sweet potato was grown in quantities during the war but it is not a popular human food. Groundnuts and soya are other crops which do well under irrigation but hitherto their cultivation has been limited by reason of the high costs.
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