Jewish/Zionist Farm Area Under Cultivation (in dunums) in Palestine before 1948 (Nakba), British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume I - Page 379. Chapter IX: Agriculture: Section 7: Jewish Agricultural Settlements: Table 6

CHAPTER IX.

Jewish agriculture as a whole has . at its disposal the advisory organizations of the agricultural colonisation departments of the Jewish national institutions and the research station at Rehovoth maintained by the Jewish Agency in association with the Hebrew University. These institutions assist the settlements with the preparation of plans for establishing the settlement, the Jay-out, design and construction of buildings, acquisition of livestock and machinery, advice on crop rotation, methods of sowing, planting, harvesting, control of pests and diseases and farm management generally. In addition, there is the Mikve Israel agricultural school established by the Alliance Israelite in 1870, the Pardess Hanna agricultural secondary school established by the Jewish Farmers' Federation (both assisted by the P.I.C.A.), agricultural schools for girls at Nahalal, Ayanot and Jerusalem, and several training farms established by the Jewish Agency.

Agricultural expansion.

177. The development of various forms of cultivation is traced in the following table :

Year

Table 8.

AREAS UNDER CULTIVATION (in dunums).

~~~~~~~~~~

Total

Plantations

Irrigated crops

Cereals

1890 13,590 26.211 279 I 40,080
1900 38,714 67,552 - 106,266
1914 69,810 142,010 - 211,820
1922 66,1~9 284,065 - 350,194
1927 65,676 251,731 2,867 320,274
1936 181,979 307,250 21,348 510,577
1941 186,365 438,430 58,162 682,957
1944 161,900 475,000 79,850 716,750

The above figures for plantations include the citrus orchards. In view of the heavy capital investment which they involved (about £P.80-120 per dunum before 1039), the development of citrus groves by Jewish farmers is shown separately below :

1922 1926 1928 1930 1932 1934 1939 .1941 1942

Dun urns

10,000 17,200 31,000 60,000 90,000

145,000 155,000 135,000 120,000

(reduction compared with 1939 due to uprooting or neglect of groves during the war).

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