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In a rural area of the central Gaza Strip, Eyad Najjar plucks organic carrots from the sandy soil of his tiny farm. Najjar no longer uses fertilizers or pesticides for his plot, which also grows tomatoes, parsley, rocket, lettuce and spinach. Instead, a fishpond on the field’s far edge delivers water rich in nutrients via drip irrigation.

Smiling, Najjar squeezes an almost-ripe fruit hanging from the branch of a lemon tree. “The onions and lemons are bigger and better,” he says.

But Najjar is not part of a hip, green revolution. In Gaza, organic agriculture has grown out of a concern for safe supplies of food. When Hamas took control in 2007, Israel imposed a crippling blockade. Not only were a number of foods blocked from entering, but stocks of pesticides and fertilisers also dried up. Israeli officials have said militants can use agricultural chemicals to make rockets.

Food insecurity among Gaza’s 1.6 million people rose, and 80% became reliant on food aid, according to the Word Food Programme. Najjar was one of them.

“The rule of thumb back then was that humanitarian items were let in, and if it was for economic development it was not,” says Sari Bashi, director of Gisha, an Israeli rights organisation. “But agricultural goods have both humanitarian and economic elements.”