Farmer ' s knowledge level and training needs toward the production and conservation of medicinal herbal plants in Jordan

The main purpose of the study is to determine farmer's awareness and training needs towards the production of Medicinal and Herbal (M/H) plants in Jordan. A survey questionnaire described the personal characteristics of M/H farmers with sample size population of 209. Results showed the majority of farmers grow thyme, sage, and mint which is a popular M/H plant grown in Jordan. A majority of farmers, 71%, feel that there is a high need for a proper legislation for conserving M/H plants in Jordan. The majority of illiterate farmers 0.89%, indicated a very high need for awareness programs about conservation and production of M/H plants. On the other hand, the majority of farmers with university degree believe that M/H plants should be conserved in their natural habitat and should be protected by legislations. Female farmers, 50%, displayed a sense of awareness than the males as regards various methods of drying. Also, the females, 42%, do not know much about implementing the irrigation system in their fields and 43% are not aware of the maintenance of the irrigation system. The study indicates the priorities of the following needed training courses: Marketing, Pest and disease management, Harvesting and post-harvesting techniques, Irrigation design and maintenance, Fertilizer application, Soil sterilization, Planting methods, Weed control, and Soil preparation. This study is considered as the first in Jordan that describes M/H plants farmers and their priority training needs.


INTRODUCTION
Herbal medicine refers to the use of herbs for their medicinal value.A herb is a plant or a plant part valued for its medicinal, aromatic or savory qualities.Usually, herbalists use leaves, flowers, stem, berries, seeds, whole plant and roots of plants to prevent, relieve, and treat illness.Historically, herbal medicine is the oldest form of health care that had been used by all cultures.Throughout the middle ages, homegrown botanic are the *Corresponding author.E-mail: laith@just.edu.jo.
Author(s) agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License only medicines readily available and for centuries, no self-respecting household would be without a carefully tended and extensively used herb garden.In most parts, herbal healing was passed from generation to generation by means of children being taught by their mothers (Shizha and Charema, 2011).People through their exploration, conquest and most importantly, the desire to aid the sick, ancient civilizations tended to borrow and adopt the skills, knowledge of medicine and healing of various cultures to their own (Sumner, 2000).
Medicinal plants are worldwide and are heavily used in traditional medicine (Obeidat, 2011).World Health Organization (WHO) estimations (80%) of the world's population relies on medicinal herbal plants for their primary health care needs (Farnsworth et al. 1985).This causes increased global interest in plant biodiversity as a means of providing more stable and secure sources of food and non-food product to meet future threats such as rising food costs, population increases, climate change, rapidly changing pest and disease threats, withdrawal of pesticides due to regulation (Craker and Simon, 1986).Earlier, medicinal plants have been used with multifunctional properties including nutraceutical food components, medical usage, and functional food.Health effects of medicinal plants have been linked with its consumption of active compounds like volatile oils, phenolic and peptide compounds that lead to decrease risk of the antiviral activity, cardiovascular disease, antifungal activity, antibacterial activity, anti-inflammatory and laxative effect (Shahidi and Naczk, 2004;Khalil et al., 2012).
The bulk of the raw materials used in preparing drugs are mostly collected from wild nature, this heavy collection causes a major problem for medicinal herbal plants.Natives to developing countries often export medicinal herbal plants to developed countries as raw materials where they are screened, analyzed and used in drug preparations to be returned as high priced medicines (Shizha and Charema, 2011).The heavy reliance on plant medicine in developing countries is attributed to their relative accessibility, low prices, local availability, and acceptance in local communities and the low number of dispensaries and doctors needed for healthcare especially in rural areas (Conserve Africa, 2005).
Generally, there are over 750000 M/H plants in the world.Medicinal plants fall into two categories, wild grown and farm grown.Wild grown herb grows naturally as a result of natural selection without human intervention, and the process of gathering herbs from their natural habitat is called wildcrafting.On the other hand, medicinal and herbal plants (M/H) grown on the farm are nurtured through cultivation and propagation processes.However, for producing high-quality products, herb farmers require a great deal of specialized knowledge.In developing countries, herbal medicine is a major component in the indigenous peoples' traditional medicine.Moreover, economic analyses have shown that medicinal plants have considerably contributed to the economic welfare of people by providing and generating reasonable income.They also contribute to household self-sufficient food security through the accumulation of savings and minimization of risks.WHO notes that of the 119 plantderived pharmaceutical medicines, about 74% are used in modern medicine in ways that correlated directly with their traditional uses as plant medicines by native cultures (Drew and Myers, 1997).
Conservation of medicinal plants, especially endangered species depends largely on the conservation of the ecosystem in which they grow.The availability of medicinal plants is of vital importance for herb collectors and also for the future rapid growing industry worldwide; therefore, conservation of M/H plant is an important issue (World Bank, 2003).Horticultural research on medicinal plants has focused on developing the capacity for optimal growth in cultivation.This has been especially pertinent as many medicinal plants are still harvested in the wild, and conditions for growth and cultivation have not been optimized (Briskin, 2000).The recent call for "back to nature" has affected all public sectors, probably because some synthetic drugs failed to prove effectiveness with serious effect (Abu Irmaileh and Afifi, 2003).The farming system would give commercial cultivation such as Echinacea purpurea in Taiwan.Transplanting E. purpurea seedlings in the autumn season and harvesting the aerial parts at the beginning of winter season, and then harvesting the rhizome-regenerated plants again in the following summer season are technically and commercially feasible (Chen et al., 2008).
The most commonly adopted approach toward conserving threatened species of M/H is to create awareness, develop cultivation, propagation techniques at the community level and provide local farmers with greater access to reliable and profitable markets.Furthermore, technical advice dedicated to promoting M/H plants based on recommendations arose from agricultural research (Faure et al., 2013).Therefore, herbs collectors need to be aware and trained on when and how to harvest.From the above facts, M/H plants should be conserved in a way that maintains and sustain their benefits, especially by conserving the natural habitat of these plants.Although Jordan is relatively a small country, it is characterized by a great variation of wild plants (Al-Quran, 2011).Medicinal herbal plants in Jordan are distributed all over the country from the eastern desert to the western highlands and from the semiarid north to the extremely arid south.The flora of Jordan is rich in medicinal and aromatic plants, as well as herbs and species, mainly those belong to the Umbelliferae, Labiatae, and Compositae families.Oran et al. (1994) found a total of 485 species which belong to 330 genera, and 99 families are herbs, shrubs, or trees and they comprise 25% of the total flora in Jordan.Many of the medicinal and herbal plants in Jordan are endangered, while some are threatened with extinction.The continuous and accelerating over-exploitation of these plants in their natural habitats, combined with the increasing demands on them, have led to the destruction of natural stocks in the wild.Therefore, evaluating the level of farmer knowledge and training needs for conserving and producing M/H plants is of crucial importance.
The main purpose of this study is to inform and train the farmer as regard the production of medicinal herbs for the sustainable use and trade in the region.The specific objectives were to describe M/H farmers on the following characteristics: gender, age, educational level, farm size, experience, work status, marital status, family size, % income from cultivation of M/H plants, determining farmer's awareness towards the production of M/H, the relationship between farmer's awareness and certain personal characteristics of farmers, and determining the training needs of farmers in the production of the M/H plants.

Jordan (31°00′N 36°00′E
) is classified as being located in semi-arid to the arid region (Figure 1) and suffers from inadequate availability of water resources that are also unevenly distributed throughout the kingdom area (Dahamsheh and Aksoy, 2007;MWI, 2014).Jordan occupies an area of 89,297 km 2 (MWI, 2014) and has a precipitation rate that varies from a minimum of 50 mm in the desert to 600 mm in northwest highlands (Tabieh et al., 2010).More than 90 % of Jordan area receives a total annual precipitation quantities below 200 mm (MWI, 2014) with an evaporation rate of 93.9 % (Hadadin et al., 2010).
The descriptive correlational research method was used in conducting this study and was used to come up with precise recommendations that enhanced and increased the production of M/H plants.The research instrument is a survey questionnaire consisting of the personal characteristics of farmers which include: age, gender, educational level, family size, farm size, work status, family size, social status and income percentage from M/H plants and the farmers experience.In order to determine the general knowledge of farmers in various types of M/H plants, twenty-seven types of M/H plants were recommended and focused on by (M/H) project and listed in the questionnaire for farmers to identify their The main method of data collection was personal interview questionnaire.Along with the main investigator of this research, a team of data collectors was trained to collect the data during the period of three months.The descriptive statistics and correlation were used in analyzing the data.The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 11.5/ Windows) computer program.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The trade of M/H plants resulted in debatable issues that includes endangering the survival of the species, erodes genetic diversity of the species, threatens their survival or functional integrity, and non-sustainability issues which in its most basic form means that the species is extracted from a particular site at a rate greater than that at which it is being replaced (Hamilton, 1992).Therefore, to ensure long-term gains to the indigenous communities and prevent overharvesting, research findings and analysis suggested many recommendations and strategies such as conservation and generating awareness about the importance of M/H plants and its sustainable use.
The cultivation of M/H plants in Jordan is a recent practice and as a result, very few species are under cultivation.The experience of farmers in cultivation is still undeveloped and is growing gradually.At the beginning, cultivation was limited to few crops under irrigation and then extended to the rain fed areas.The majority of farmers who cultivate M/H plants are concentrated in Irbid, Amman and Karak counties in Jordan.This is because land receives high rainfall, have irrigation sources and have the active farming communities.Moreover, non-governmental organizations carry out activities in these areas that encourage farmers to cultivate M/H plants and provide to them the proper technologies (Hadad and Turk, 2002).
The data presented in Table 1 shows that males are the majority of the sample population (66%) and about one-third of the samples are females.The age of the farmers were distributed as follows: one-third of the farmers, 33%, were between 31 to 40 years old; 27% were between 41-50 years; 11% werre less than 30 years old; 12% were above 60 years old.Regarding the educational level of farmers, more than one-third of the sample population was highly educated with university degrees, more than half of the sample population were with some form of education ranging from Primary to High school, and about 9% were unschooled.As for farm size, the study showed that one-third of farmers cultivate less than 0.1 ha.On the other hand, 27% of farmers cultivates more than 1.5 ha.Moreover, farmers who participated in the study varied in their experiences.Almost a quarter of the sample population have experience less than 5 years, 24%, and approximately the same % of farmers have over 20 years of experience, 23%.Also, the study showed that one-third, 32%, of farmers are full-time farmers and own their lands while 9% of farmers rent their land.In addition, the study showed that majority, 86%, of the farmers are married and 12% are singles.Furthermore, the study showed that the mean average family size was 7 household members.Asking farmers about their percent of income generated from the cultivation of M/H plants, the study showed that the average generated income was 12% of the net total of production.Haddad and Turk (2002) opined that the majority of Jordanian farmers own their land and around 50% of them have an area less than 0.2 ha.The areas devoted to M/H plants from farm area ranging from 0.1 ha to more than 5 ha with 53%, cultivated an area of 0.6 to 2 ha; 32%, less than 0.5 ha and only 6% cultivated more than 5 ha.Medicinal and herbal crops currently grown in Jordan under irrigation are Oregano, mint, and sage.Oregano and mint are grown mainly under plastic houses, but sage is grown in the open field.Crops grown under rainfed are cumin, black cumin, anise, and fenugreek.All available medicinal herbal plants species of Jordanian origin are consumed directly by inhabitants and collected from the wild with insignificant cultivation for few of them except for oregano, sage, anise and chamomile.For determining farmer's awareness towards the production of M/H plants as shown in Table 2, the study indicates that 60% of farmers are highly aware of the conservation and production aspects of M/H plants.At the other end, the study showed that only 23% of farmers have little awareness, and about 17% are averagely aware.However; regarding the general awareness and identification of M/H plant types, the study showed that 98% of farmers easily identify thyme, sage, and mint.The findings also indicated that the popular M/H plant grown in Jordan by majority of farmers are thyme, sage and mint.
To determine the relationship between farmers' awareness and certain personal characteristics of farmers as shown in Table 3, the following results show only the significant relationship between farmers' awareness and certain personal characteristics of farmers by using the Chi-square.The study showed that the majority of females, 64%, are high aware about conserving wild M/H plants that can help in biodiversity.Moreover, 50% females appeared to be more aware than males as Rousan and Al-Uzaizi 355 regards various methods of drying.On the other hand, 42% females displayed little knowledge on to implement the irrigation system in their fields and 43% are not aware of the maintenance of the irrigation system.Furthermore, the association between farmers awareness and the age characteristics in the study showed that the majority of farmers, 60%, who are above 60 years are against harvesting M/H plant by pulling.71% of the same age category of farmers feels that there is a high need for a proper legislation for conserving M/H plants in Jordan.According to the relationship between farmers' awareness and their educational level, the majority of illiterate farmers, 89%, displayed a very high need for awareness programs about conservation and production of M/H plants.The majority of farmers with university degrees believe that M/H plants should be conserved in their natural habitat.
The results of the relationship between farmer's awareness and farm size showed that 72% of farmers who own less than 0.1ha are very highly aware about the best way of using M/H plants is soaking.The same category of farmers are also highly aware in the knowledge of different methods of drying M/H plants, and on how to implement and maintain the irrigation system in their fields.Also, the same categories of farmers believe that most of the M/H plants should be irrigated by a drip irrigation system.
Farmers owning more than 1.5 ha, 53%, showed that they know different types of chemical fertilizers that can be applied to M/H plants and 52% are of the knowledge that majority of M/H plants require supplement irrigation 2 to 3 times per week.On the other hand, the majority of farmers in the category of less than 0.1 ha indicated that extension officers seldom advise them and this same category of farmers, 42%, have little knowledge of the the various types of fertilizers that can be added to the M/H plants.
The results of the relationship between farmer's awareness and farmers' experience indicated that farmers having experience more than 20 years, 74% showed very high awareness about quality control related to M/H plants.The same category of farmers, 70% believe that wild M/H plants should be protected by legislations and 71% believe that pulling the plants from the wild is not the proper way of harvesting.
Determining the training needs of farmers in the production of the M/H plants as shown in Table 4.The study showed that the first training courses required by farmers, 72%, is marketing (local and international).The second training course identified is training courses related to the identification of pests and diseases, Integrated Pest Management (IPM) control, methods of using pesticides and safety period, 65%.The third highest training needs, 53%, is training courses in harvesting (harvesting time, the method of harvesting, grading, packaging, cooling and storing of fresh and dried M/H plants).The fourth training need is irrigation design

Conclusions
According to the study analysis, more than half of the farmers are highly aware of conservation and production processes of M/H plants, whereas 23% of farmers have low awareness.Furthermore, the analysis of the study concluded that training courses on all aspects of marketing, locally and internationally, training courses on diseases identifications and control, fertilizer use and

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.The map of Jordan (study area).

Table 1 .
Personal characteristics of medicinal herbal plant (M/H) farmers.Furthermore, these 64 questions were used to determine the relationship between the knowledge level of the management of medicinal plants and certain personal characteristics of farmers such as age, gender, educational level, family size, farm size, work status and percentage of income.Also, the questionnaire dealt with the rank order, the source of knowledge and information of farmers.The questionnaire likewise included 14 questions about the communications of farmers with agricultural extension services in their areas.Finally, the questionnaire consisted of nine categories of identified training needs.Respondents can determine and prioritize their training needs.This part of the questionnaire also includes questions to determine and prioritize the obstacles of M/H production from the farmers point of view.Validity and reliability of the research Instrument were established by a panel of experts and a field test.The estimated target population of the study is around 1000 farmers according to the Ministry of Agriculture / Agriculture Extension Department (2007).The sample size was n=209 farmer which represents about 20% of the target population.Simple random and cluster random was used in the sampling procedure.
types.Moreover, this part of the instrument designed to ask about other types of M/H plants that farmers can identify was followed by questions regarding the types of M/H plants that farmer grow.In addition, the questionnaire was designed to determine farmer's knowledge and awareness level toward the productions of medicinal herbal plants in Jordan, and it comprised of 64 Likert-type scale questions.These questions are related to economic, nutritional, medicinal and ecological values, methods of using Likert-type M/H plants, extension, and cultural practices.

Table 3 .
Determining the relationship (association)between level of knowledge on the management of medicinal plants and certain personal characteristics of farmers.

Table 3 .
Cont'd.. the fifth and sixth training need is fertilizer application, 51%, and the soil sterilization, 48%, respectively.theseventhtrainingneed is planting methods ,46%; the eighth training need is weed control, 41%; and the ninth training need is soil preparation, 29%.Chi-square test was used in conducting the analysis for determining the relationship between training needs and certain personal characteristics of farmer.The data in Table5show only the significant relationship.Males showed that they need higher training in marketing 43%; disease control, 37%; and harvesting, 29%.On the other hand, the study showed that females, 26%, need training in fertilizers application.Work status as contained in Table6indicates that training courses are highly required by full time farmers as follows: training courses in diseases identifications and control, 28%; and training courses in irrigation implementation and maintenance, 21%.Regarding the relationship between training needs and educational level of farmers in Table 7, the study indicates that training courses are highly required by farmers holding a university degree as follows: training courses in diseases identifications and control, 19%; training courses in soil preparation and plowing, 10%.