7 rural women cooperatives receive donated equipments and MoAg calls on them to work together to produce organic olive oil

Seven rural women cooperatives received yesterday a gift of agricultural equipment offered by the national programme to improve the quality of olive oil and to combat the almonds phytoplasma.  The benefiting cooperatives included the agriculture cooperative in Dar al Was3a - al Amira, the agriculture cooperative in Tarayya, the agriculture cooperative in Bednayel, the agriculture cooperative in Baalbak - al Qal3a, the agriculture cooperative in Haret Saida, the agriculture cooperative in Hareess - al Imad, and the agriculture cooperative in Ghaziyeh, which were awarded the equipments during a ceremony organised for the occasion under the auspices of the Minister of Agriculture (MoAg), Dr. Hussein Hajj Hassan who emphasized in his speech importance of supporting rural women cooperatives with a view to improving their crafts and home based production.  Hajj Hassan noted that in addition to being educators, women seek to become productive especially since many of them are fully responsible for the livelihoods of their families.

Hajj Hassan further added that his Ministry will offer training, financial and material support as well as assistance in marketing and other forms of assistance namely in the form ofdistribution of agricultural inputs (seedlings, pesticides, etc..) as he noted that training, quality control and improving health and safety measures are a sure way to increase profits andto ensure the sustainability of the cooperatives.  He also added that current modes of olive oil productions need some measure to qualify as organic production which would give oil production an international added value.  Hajj Hassan called on the cooperatives to organise into a union for the production of organic olive oil.  He emphasized that his Ministry would be ready to support such an initiative through the new marketing outlets that the Ministry is currently setting up in various parts of Lebanon and which will devoted entirely for this purpose.

Source: Al-Diyar, Al-Nahar, Al-Mustaqbal, Al-Safir 6 December 2013