Only 1% of Lebanese government budget allocated to agriculture

In a special feature published yesterday, The Daily Star highlighted the challenges facing Lebanese farmers for a number of reasons, mainly, the closure of the borders with Syria and Jordan, the rigorous competition of foreign goods and the absence of government protection to agriculture. The Lebanese State allocates a miniscule fraction (hardly 1%) to a sector that supports the livelihoods of thousands of households, The Daily Star wrote. On the subject, the head of the Farmers’ Association in Besharreh, reiterated his criticism of the government which resorts to incomplete solutions to resolve endemic problems. The newspaper also brought to mind the drawback in exporting which, it said, exacerbated with the closure of crossings in response to a decision last September by then agriculture minister Akram Shehayeb’s in his bid to control the flow of Syrian goods into the country. This impasse prompted Lebanon’s state-run agency, IDAL, to launch the famous maritime bridge export program, which led to a fall in Lebanese exports from 533.18 tons in 2014 to 364.75 tons in 2015 down till 360.76 tons in 2016, according to Lebanese Customs figures. Citing informed sources, The Daily Star disclosed the presence of some 50 illegal crossings along the Baalbek-Hermel borders alone. It recalled the president of the Beqaa Farmers’ Association, Ibrahim Tarshishi’s criticism of the above program which, as he said, supported big producers rather than small farmers who were inflicted with substantial losses due to the high sea shipping costs. On the subject, Nasser Lama, the technical director of the USAID-funded Lebanon Industry Value Chain Development Project (LIVCD), proposed a number of solutions to alleviate the situation. It begins with improving the quality of agricultural products and adding varieties that are wanted in the external markets, and the rationalization of the use of pesticides. (The Daily Star, February 14, 2017)