The history of agriculture in Palestine dates back to 8000 BCE and some of the earliest agricultural settlements in the world. Several of the crops grown by the earliest farmers continued to be important throughout the long history of Palestinian agriculture. In the 19th century CE the Ottoman Empire discouraged, with limited success, the long-standing communal land system called musha'a practiced by the Palestinian Arab farmers living in the highlands. Wheat and barley were their most important crops and were grown primarily for subsistence rather than the commercial market. Olives are an important traditional crop. In the late 19th century Palestinians began to grow commercial and export crops such as citrus in the lowlands near the Mediterranean Sea coast. Large landowners, both resident and non-resident, owned a large part of the land, especially near the coast. In 1882, Jewish immigrants, with financing and technical assistance from abroad, began to purchase land and establish agricultural settlements in the coastal area of the Holy Land. Jewish farmers focused on producing commercial and export crops such as vegetables and citrus. By 1941, Jews owned 24.5 percent of the cultivated land in Palestine. Most Palestinians continued to live in the highlands and practice subsistence agriculture. The partition of Palestine into the country of Israel and the Palestinian territories in 1947–1948 resulted in a war in which most Palestinian farmers living in Israel were dispossessed of their land which was subsequently farmed by Israelis. More land farmed by Palestinians in the Palestinian territories (and subsequent State of Palestine) has since been gained by Israel as a result of wars and uprisings and Israeli settlements. Israeli policies limiting the supply of water and access to farmland by Palestinians have had deleterious impacts on Palestinian agriculture.
Early agriculture
Jericho, near the Jordan River in Palestine, is one of the oldest agricultural settlements in the world dating to 8,000 BCE or earlier. Eight founder crops were grown at that time or shortly thereafter: three cereals (Einkorn and emmer wheat and barley); four pulses (lentils, peas, chickpeas, and bitter vetch), and flax The fig tree may have been domesticated even earlier, possibly around 9000 BCE. The olive tree was domesticated about 6000 BCE. Citrus trees originated in Southeast Asia but were introduced into Palestine during the first millennium BCE. The early farmers of Palestine had four important domesticated animals: goats, sheep, oxen, and camels. The importance of Palestinian agriculture was attested in the 10th century by the Palestinian geographer Al-Maqdisi who cited olives, cotton, grapes, and sugar cane among the crops of the region. In the 16th century, Franciscan priest Francesco Suriano added apples, citrus, and sesame to the list of important Palestinian crops. Cotton and sesame were exported to Europe from the 16th century onward.
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