The tapes are 3/4" Umatic small video cassettes (7 1/4" x 4 5/8" x 1 3/16") that are used in field recording decks and cannot be played in standard Umatic decks.
For the Jordan Valley Agricultural Services Project (JVASP), Washington State University contracted under the collaborative assistance provisions of Title XII of the amendments to the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act, which created the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and initiated a partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) in Jordan in 1981 to found agricultural research stations, develop agricultural extension services similar to those WSU provides in the State of Washington, and train Jordanians to provide those services. The first WSU personnel arrived in Jordan in June 1982. JVASP employed about 90 technical and support staff in Jordan, sponsored 19 academic degree programs, and provided short-term training programs to 41 MOA employees. At the project's conclusion in 1988, fifteen Jordanian extension agents were working in the Valley.
The project established an agricultural research and extension center at Deir Alla and three substations at Wadi Al-Yabis, Abu-Habil, and Karameh. The Jordan Valley and Southern Ghor are major agricultural production areas in Jordan. The Jordan Valley and Southern Ghor are major agricultural production areas in Jordan. JVASP's goal was to increase fruit and vegetable production in them by developing appropriate agricultural technology at the research stations and then disseminating that technology, methods, and other information through extension agents. Advised by WSU faculty, JVASP staff undertook applied research in integrated pest management, plant production, soil science, water management, and production economics.
JVASP followed a WSU partnership with the University of Jordan in the 1970s to assist in developing an agricultural teaching, research, and extension structure at the Amman campus similar to that of a land-grant university such as WSU in the United States. The initial JVASP contract was for $5.6 million and to extend five years through fiscal year 1986. A two-year contract extension carried JVASP until 1988 when it completed.
The College of Agriculture, supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) and the government of Indonesia, partnered with eight institutions of the Association of Eastern Island Universities in a multi-million dollar, five-year cooperative education program that began in the October 1979 and concluded at the end of June 1984. The program involved WSU faculty and graduate students working in Indonesia and Indonesian faculty and graduate students visiting the Pullman campus.
Other than the processing file, all items in the collection are video tapes which may have been made on the Washington State University Pullman campus during an orientation for those traveling to Jordan for the Jordan Valley Agricultural Services Project (JVASP). Ihe video tapes which retain their original labels identifying, in most cases, day of the week (Wednesday or Thursday) and speakers' surnames, but rarely with topic information and always without year or location. The tapes are 3/4" Umatic small video cassettes (7 1/4" x 4 5/8" x 1 3/16") that are used in field recording decks and typically recorded up to 20 minutes. However, because the speaker names on the tapes do not match those of WSU faculty and staff listed as participating in JVASP, these tapes are probably not ones made in Jordan. Rather, they may have been made on the Pullman campus during an orientation for those traveling to Jordan. Because they are on small cassettes, the tapes cannot be played in standard Umatic decks.
The collection is arranged in one short series.
This collection is open and available for research use.
Copyright restrictions apply.
[Item Description]
Washington State University Jordan Valley Agricultural Services Project Recordings, circa 1982-1988 (Archives 312)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
The materials in this collection were transferred to WSU Libraries in approximately October of 1999 by Jill Bonner, who found them abandoned in her office in Hulbert Hall. The tapes were retained as UA 2000-16.
This collection was processed in January-February, 2012 by Susan Vetter.
Jordan Valley Agricultural Services Project, Program Report 1981-1988. Washington State University, Ministry of Agriculture Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, United States Agency for International Development. Pullman, Washington: Washington State University, March 1988. Available online from USAID and physically at MASC in UA1990-08, Box 13
Preliminary Guide to the Washington State University Jordan Valley Service Project Records, 1982-1989
Washington State University International Programs, Campus Coordinator Records, 1971-1984
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.