Dar Salah, Palestinian Territories - The small farm in the southern West Bank seems unremarkable, but for one thing. Instead of the sheep traditional to the area, its livestock are ostriches.
Fifty-year-old farmer Abdelrahman Abu Tir, whose name coincidentally translates as "father of the bird", has for the last three years been farming ostriches for meat in a project unique in the Palestinian Territories.
In another corner of the West Bank in Jericho, a separate group of agricultural entrepreneurs have begun the first Palestinian mushroom farm since Israel occupied the territories in 1967.
The two projects are among a growing number of ventures in Palestinian agriculture that seek to fill gaps in the market, both for business purposes and to cut reliance on the Jewish state for food.
Picking at tufts of coarse grass, Abu Tir's giant birds -- normally spotted on the plains of Africa -- look out of place in the village of Dar Salah, where he keeps 200 of them on around two hectares (five acres) of land.
He said the idea for the farm came to him when Israel banned ostrich farming several years ago because it considers the animals a "protected wild species".
"I began buying the ostriches from Israeli farms when I saw that those farms were being closed" Abu Tir said.
Since then he has been selling meat, feathers and eggs to Palestinian and Israeli buyers, but also to customers in the Gulf and neighbouring Jordan.
Given ostrich meat is not a common delicacy among Israelis or Palestinians, for now Abu Tir sells only on demand, but he is optimistic the business can grow.
"It will take a while for the idea of eating ostrich to gain traction in the local market. For Palestinians it's a strange meat and it's also fairly expensive," he said.
"Even turkey took a while to catch on. Palestinians prefer to eat fattier meat such as lamb."
Abu Tir has an arsenal of arguments to promote his product.
"Ostrich meat is better for your health, and the way they are farmed is much less damaging to the environment than with sheep or cattle," he said.
Confident his business will grow, Abu Tir is negotiating with the Palestinian agriculture ministry to expand the farm.
"I'd like to have maybe 1,000 or 2,000 ostriches within the next two years, and eventually 10,000."
AFP
