Jordan Country Book

Last update: February 2025

This page contains information about some of the data available in the FEWS NET Data Explorer (FDE) for Jordan. This is not a comprehensive guide.

For information about using the filters and fields for specific domains in the FDE, see Choose a Data Domain.

Summary table

Country food security context

Statistical reporting units

Jordan usually uses administrative units as their statistical reporting units.

Administrative (admin) units are the geographical areas into which a country is divided. FEWS NET uses the following terminology: National boundary = admin 0, First sub-national division = admin 1 (e.g., states in the United States), Second sub-national division = admin 2 (e.g., counties in the United States), and so on.

Admin 1: Governorate or muhafazah

Admin 2: District or liwa

As of 1994, the first sub-national level of administrative units into which Jordan is divided includes 12 governorates (muhafazah). They are often described by the geographic regions they belong to:

• North - Irbid, Aljoun, Jerash, and Mafraq

• Central - Balqa, Amman, Zarqa, and Madaba

• South - Karak, Tafilah, Ma’an, and Aqaba

Aljoun, Jerash, Madaba and Aqaba were the four new governorates created in 1994.

Crop data

Explore our crop data.

View our documentation on using the Crop Domain.

Crop estimate data sources

The Jordan Department of Statistics is the primary source for crop statistics for Jordan.

The Crops Production Division in the Department of Statistics (DoS) implements a number of agricultural surveys annually. These surveys cover various crops production sectors. The annual Agricultural Statistics Bulletin is released every year in July with the following goals:

• Estimating the cultivated area.

• Estimating the production of various field crops, fruit trees and vegetables by crop type and the agricultural planting period.

• Estimating the total number of fruit trees by fruit type.

• Estimating the size of agricultural labor force by type, sex, nationality and age group.

Crop reporting units

Crop statistics are reported at the Admin 1 level, but may also be broken out by a second-level administrative unit name of a district (liwa). This is true for most of the agricultural areas which lie in the Jordan River Valley (also referred to as the ghor).

The rest of Jordan’s agricultural production is generally referred to as coming from the upland areas of the governorates. Upland in this sense refers to rain-fed agricultural areas found east of and above the Jordan River Valley, yet still west of the eastern desert. The upland identifier may refer to agricultural activity occurring in one or more districts of a governorate.

Year and season definition

The annual cropping cycle in Jordan is generally considered to be consistent with the Gregorian year, beginning in January and ending in December.  The cropping year is therefore mostly referred to with a single-year notation (e.g. 2023), this being the year in which the harvests occur.

• Summer: Most crops fall into this category and are planted between February and May and harvested between June and November. 

• Winter: The country’s sorghum crop is an exception, generally planted between October and December and harvested between June and July. 

Sorghum planted at the end of 2022 and harvested in 2023 will be included in 2023 data.

Crop statistics context

Note that in comparing crop statistics from the Jordan Department of Statistics and FAOSTAT, FAO is reporting harvested areas, not cultivated. 

There are approximately 43 crops for which crop results are reported in Jordan. 

Grains and beans are generally reported by the annual cropping season, while vegetables are most often reported by the winter or summer season. No production system breakouts are provided by crop.

Methodology

The country’s crop estimation methods are described on the Plant production section of Jordan’s Department of Statistics website by selecting the Methodology tab. The website is available in Arabic and English.