This article forms part of a series of publications under SIRCLES project to support circular economy opportunities for employment and social inclusion in our partner territories in Palestine, Lebanon, Spain, Tunisia, Italy, Greece, and Jordan.

The House of Water and the Environment (HWE), SIRCLES project's partner in Palestine, organized a specialized training in composting and organic agriculture organized  in Palestine under SIRCLES project which wants to explore new employment opportunities in applying the circular economy model applied to the biowaste sector. As part of the practical component, HWE held a 2-day training session, on the 7th and 8th of May, on the topic of “Organic Farming” in Om Sleiman Organic Farm, located in the village of Bil’in in Ramallah. A total of 14 trainees including three individuals with special needs attended the sessions and had the opportunity to learn more about the fundamentals of organic farming and practice what they have already learnt during the theoretical training.

Amongst the topics were: soil fertility, pest control, preparation of yeast compost, preparation of vinegar fertilizer, preparation of organic traps and preparation of insecticides. The training aims to change the norm regarding agriculture, “the training focused on enhancing skills in order to shift from traditional agriculture to sustainable one to preserve both the environment and the soil from degradation, as well as to sustain healthy agricultural production” said Abdullah Ghannmeh, the trainer.

To the trainees, the session was regarded as very beneficial and the impact on the trainees was substantial. “This training gave me the opportunity to discover nature and farming in ways I had never heard of; I am now more interested in developing my skills regarding this topic” mentioned Said Ma’moon, one of the trainees.