His Majesty King Abdullah II, accompanied by His Royal Highness Crown Prince Al Hussein, on Thursday visited the Oheida agricultural station in Southern Badia, two years after a surprise visit, and praises the measures taken to develop the station since then through a partnership between the public and private sectors.

King Abdullah stressed the importance of training the local community on the latest agritech methods, calling for turning the 16 agricultural stations in Jordan into incubators for advanced projects and utilising solar energy to reduce operational expenses.

His Majesty was briefed on the phases of the Oheida agricultural station development project, in which the investment is estimated at a value of nearly JD3.4 million, with plans to increase it to JD13 million.

A field training centre established at the station, under the public-private partnership, has so far trained 86 residents of the Southern Badia to enable them to utilise the latest agricultural technologies while conserving water consumption, according to project stakeholders.

Nearly 1,125 dunums out of the station’s 2,070-dunum-land have been planted with trees, with plans to cover the entire area by 2024, the project stakeholders said.

The project, which employs 28 workers and has benefited from the expertise of 250 workers in the area during construction, also includes the maintenance of wells and establishing new ones, as well as setting up a weather station to monitor humidity and wind speed.

Royal Hashemite Court Chief Yousef Issawi, Director of the Office of His Majesty Jafar Hassan, and Agriculture Minister Khaled Hneifat accompanied His Majesty.