Climatic changes exacerbate Lebanese farmers’ anguish

The anguish of Lebanese farmers continue in the absence of official attention to agriculture. According to An Nahar newspaper today, nature and climate factors have inflicted heavy losses on farmers, which is not news, especially the recent torrential rains and flooding which damaged and wreaked havoc on many cultivated lands and greenhouses in the North and South. This drove farmers to raise their voices in protest to salvage whatever can be salvaged from the seasons, An Nahar wrote. In this respect, the chief of the Lebanese Farmers Association, Antoine Howayek, told the newspaper that the government’s neglect of agriculture is a ‘perfect crime’, adding, that failing to endorse the law to set up the National Social Security Fund for Natural Disasters intensifies further the suffering and exploitation of farmers. Meanwhile, the industry minister in the caretaker government, Hussein Haj Hassan, contacted yesterday the director general of Regi, Nassif Seqlawi, and the secretary general of the Higher Relief Council, General Mohamad Kheir, to brief them on the size of damage inflicted on tobacco farmers as a result of the heavy rain and hail storms which hit the Baalbek Hermel area last week. Similarly, Al Diyar newspaper today brought attention to the crisis ridden poultry sector in Akkar. It pointed out that the setbacks in the industry started in 2011 with the disruption in poultry exports through bordering Syria, and the successive snow storms which hit the area, in addition to the decline in prices due to the increase in imported eggs and chicken. (More info on the following link: : https://goo.gl/C6NFdT). (An Nahar, Al Diyar, Al Mustaqbal, June 13, 14, 2018)

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