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Chapter Eight

                Fayah in Sharjah. Three hundred acres of land were irrigated, and
                planted with fruit trees, lucerne and vegetables, with the intention of
                handing over sections to tribesmen of the area, many of whom would
                continue to lead a semi-nomadic life. But the latter part of the Milaihah
                project was not achieved during the lifetime of the Development
                Office. The federal Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, which look
                over this project, inherited the technical inadequacies of the scheme;
                they found that there was no assured market near enough and that
                most of the settlers preferred to earn a regular wage rather than face
                the risks inherent in owning their own plot.120
                  Perhaps the most useful contribution which the Development
                Office made to the improvement of agriculture in the  area was
                through its agricultural school. This was established in September
                1967 in place of the primary school which had been run by the
                Diqdaqah station since the 1950s. The school ran a two-year course
                in agriculture for students who had completed intermediate
                schooling. In 1970 five students graduated all taking posts with the
                Development Office, and in the following school year, the last under
                the Development Office, there were 24 students and 3 Palestinian
                teachers at the school.

                Surveys
                Before any large-scale agricultural projects could be undertaken in
                the area it was essential to commission surveys to determine the
                nature and availability of ground water, and to investigate the
                various soil types of the area. Therefore the first sum of money which
                the British Government gave for development in the Trucial States in
                1952 included funds for a Water Resources Survey; a second survey
                in 1959 was carried out under the auspices of the UN Technical
                Assistance Branch. Any local farmer would himself classify the
                various areas bearing in mind the availability of water. The
                properties of the soil in the mountain foreland, the wadis and the
                desert borders play an equally important role in the siting of new
                farms and the selection of crops to be raised there.
                  From the outset the Development Office concentrated on gathering
                information in surveys before engaging on a project, and inevitably
                the majority of these surveys were hydrological.129 The British firm of
                consultants, Sir William Halcrow and Partners, which had worked in
                Dubai since the 1950s, made another groundwater survey in 1965
                which was commissioned by the British Government. This firm

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