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Gush Katif, Gaza (CNSNews.com) -- Shlomo Wasserteil, a successful Israeli farmer, employs up to 45 workers in the busy season -- many of them Palestinians.

But three months from now he may need government assistance to support his own family because he says there is no way for him to move his business out of the Gaza Strip.

All 21 Jewish communities in the Gaza Strip and four in the northern West Bank will be evacuated this summer under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan, which is intended to reduce contact and friction between Israelis and Palestinians.

The government has promised compensation to residents and business owners, many of whom have lived in the settlements for nearly 30 years.

A government compensation committee met for the first time this week, beginning the process of deciding how much each family will get.

Most Israelis in the Gaza Strip are hoping the plan won't be implemented. But if worst comes to worst, farmers say there is no procedure in place to help them move their farming businesses.

Agriculture is the economic foundation of the 18 Jewish communities in the southern Gaza Strip. There are some 4,000 dunams (1,000 acres) of high-tech greenhouses in the southern settlement area known as Gush Katif.

About $120 million worth of flowers and produce are exported from Gush Katif each year.

Sixty-five percent of organic vegetables and 60 percent of the herbs exported from Israel come from Gush Katif, said Yossi Tsarfati, manager of the agriculture industry in the Gush Katif.

"It's a big mental struggle. Everyone wants to stay here," said Tsarfati. "But the reality is if we need to leave here...it puts [the farmers] in a deep pit."

Moving the businesses would break the link between the farmers on one end -- and exporters and importers on the other end, he said. "There are very hard dilemmas...[But] there is no hurry to get to the next place. There is no next place."

It could take years to prepare the infrastructure, water pipes and electricity for the hot-houses, he said.

For six months, the Israeli government has been searching unsuccessfully for another place with the right climate and soil conditions to plant herbs -- one of the main crops.

But even if a suitable place could be found, it would take at least two years to produce a crop and the crop size would be less than what is being produced now, said Tsarfati, a longtime resident of Gush Katif.

Standing in one of his two very large greenhouses, Wasserteil said what really bothers him is that Israeli Knesset members voted in favor of the disengagement compensation law without understanding the situation.

"They don't know what they're talking about -- everybody that comes here says it can't be. This is the reality," Wasserteil said.

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