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A more methodical agricultural development is called for with the object of ensuring a better use of the land.'
Palestine's economy was historically based on agriculture.2 Apart from important deposits of potash and bromine in the Dead Sea, the country had no other minerals of any economic value.3 During the British Mandate, the role of agriculture did not diminish in the face of industrialization and by 1930, 53 per cent of the settled population was still engaged in farming and pasturage4 (Table 1), compared with 14 per cent in industry.5 93 per cent of those were Arabs, and 5 per cent were Jews.6
Centuries of over-exploitation and the abandonment of terracing caused the soils of Palestine to be much denuded.' This had been made worse during the First World War when the Turks used up enormous quantities of timber for fuel and destroyed large areas of forests and protective treebarriers! The diversity in the soil, topography and the Mediterranean-type climate9 in the different parts of the country allowed for the production of a range of crops, as 45 per cent of the farmers cultivated mainly cereals: `Barley and wheat of not too good a quality: an inferior form of millet and an occasionally successful and valuable crop of sesame provide the means of subsistence of the greater part of the population.10
Cereals were rotated with the also important vegetables (e.g. broadbeans) and oil crops (e.g. dura - or millet). Five per cent produced special crops, for example, vegetables, and three per cent were engaged in animalhusbandry and forestry." 0.1 per cent grew citrus.12 Of the cultivated area, 81 per cent was arable land, 14.6 per cent orchards, 2.1 per cent orchards, 2.1 per cent forests, 1.2 per cent meadow and pasture, and 1.1 per cent was productive wasteland (moor, heath and marsh).'3 Because Palestine could not support large regions of grassland, the area under arable was relatively much greater than in other Mediterranean countries.
The pervading importance of agriculture in Palestine's economy was reflected in the trade figures: agricultural produce made up 90 per cent of total exports (for example, in 1934, P2,908,050 of P3,217,562 worth of total exports was agricultural). Of that, citrus fruit (mainly oranges, grapefruit and lemons) alone, accounted for 74...