AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Jordan is one of the most water-scarce countries in the world. This year, drought and higher temperatures have led to a sharp decline in the country's most important crop - olives. As correspondent Jane Arraf tells us, it's so bad that this year, the country is importing olive oil.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Singing in Arabic).
JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: At a mosque on the outskirts of Amman and across Jordan, worshippers are praying for rain. In what would normally be the rainy season, most parts of the country haven't received any at all.
MOHAMED AL ZOGHOL: (Speaking Arabic).
ARRAF: Imam Mohamed al Zoghol tells us that throughout Islamic history, people prayed for rain and received it.
On a small farm near the city of Salt, filmmaker Mariam Shahin's family has grown rain-fed olives for decades.
MARIAM SHAHIN: Traditional olive harvesters don't add water, they just leave things to rainwater. And that rainwater wasn't available this year.
ARRAF: She says in normal years, the olive harvest would produce about 12 four-gallon canisters of oil.
SHAHIN: When it was bad, when the season wasn't so good, it would be eight or nine. And this year, for the first time, it was two.
ARRAF: Like most small producers, she normally sells the surplus or gives it as gifts. This year, there isn't enough for that. For the first time in years, in fact, Jordan, which heavily regulates its olive oil industry, is allowing imports.
(SOUNDBITE OF MACHINERY WHIRRING)
ARRAF: At a small olive-pressing plant nearby, there's the clanging of machines as growers bring their olives to be turned into cold-pressed extra-virgin oil without using heat or chemicals. Saddam al-Abbadi, an official in the Amman municipality, has brought olives from the family's thousands of trees.
SADDAM AL ABBADI: (Speaking Arabic).
ARRAF: "This year is one of the worst seasons in olive and other crops because of the lack of rain and climate change," he says. Their harvest was just 10% of last year's. The government doesn't allow farmers here to dig wells, and buying water is too expensive.
(SOUNDBITE OF MACHINERY WHIRRING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking Arabic, laughter)
ARRAF: Farmers watch as their olives are loaded on a conveyor belt, rinsed and then pressed. Minutes later, golden-green olive oil pours out into stainless steel tanks.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Speaking Arabic).
ARRAF: Outside, farmers are still arriving with olives. And then, as Shahin stands outside, it starts to rain.
SHAHIN: Oh, my God. Oh, my God, it's wonderful. We have rain.
ARRAF: It's rain.
SHAHIN: It's rain. It's rain. It's rain.
ARRAF: It rains for less than a minute. For this season, much too little and too late.
For NPR News, I'm Jane Arraf near Salt, Jordan.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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