Crisis of agriculture to continue amidst government’s indifference

Everyone agreed that last year was a bad year for agriculture. Furthermore, An Nahar newspaper drew attention yesterday to the major losses of local potato growers, particularly in the Beqaa region. Many factors are involved, the newspaper analyzed, while listing the following: government’s ending of subsidies to refrigerated trucks that transfer goods and supplies to the markets as well as to supporting RoRo ships; weak marketing drive, Jordan’s decision to close its markets to Lebanese agricultural products. This, An Nahar wrote, has exacerbated the losses on farmers (estimated at over USD 3 million). On he other side, the article cited the director-general of agriculture, Louis La7hud, as reiterating the prime minister’s commitment to compensating potato farmers in response to Jordan’s decision. La7hud revealed that meetings will be held in the coming days to review and modify the support mechanism implemented by IDAL to this end, noting the importance of economic diplomacy in alleviating the marketing quandary. It is to be noted that the minister of agriculture, Ghazi Zeiater left the Cabinet meeting yesterday before it was adjourned for “unduly omitting agricultural items on its agenda”, as he said, while lamenting: “Why should this sector have to suffer for 40 years? (An Nahar, Al Diyar, Al Mustaqbal, January, 11 and 12, 2018)
 

Previous related news: 
2017, yet another bad year for agriculture in Lebanon