Towards alternative self-reliant agricultural development

This research paper seeks to propose informal popular agricultural production as an alternative to the formal Arab agricultural economic plans and policies, in general, and as an alternative to the formal Palestinian and international plans and policies that are set for the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in particular. It includes an analytical approach to the external factors that have resulted in the distortion of the agricultural economy in Palestine.The results of the paper show that in order to achieve a beneficial agricultural production system for the West Bank & Gaza Strip, the following should be accomplished: establishing an Arab economic union, protecting their agricultural products adopting new appropriate techniques that assist in controlling agricultural pests applying natural preventative measures and traditional biological, organic and mechanical practices in order to achieve a balanced and sustainable agricultural system encouraging the marketing of local organic agricultural products This paper regards that the most beneficial agricultural production system is the self-reliant one. All its various components are supplied from within the system itself. In this system, overspending does not exist, there are no lost wastes that are not returned to the system, and there are no destructive hazards caused to the environment, the soil and general health.Finally, according to the author, the basic precondition to the prosperity and survival of Palestine is largely dependent on the protection of scarce land and water resources. The subsistence needs from the local resources must be secured. This entails strengthening the principle of recycling local resources, thereby contributing to soil fertilization and increasing natural wealth because all outputs of wastes that are not returned back as inputs into the same production or consumption system will become pollutants.