Lebanon’s development realities and challenges at the Conference on household farming in Brussels

The Director General of the Chamber of Industry, Commerce and Agriculture in Zahleh and the General Secretary of Local Economic Development Agency (LEDA), Youssef Geha, attended, upon the invitation of UNDP-Art Gold, a conference in Brussels entitled: “Family farming: A dialogue towards more sustainable and resilient farming in Europe and the world”, and which extended over two days with the participation of some 3000 invitees worldwide.  The conference discussed the realities of development in various countries of the world with special focus on poor and developing countries. These countries gave presentations on their respective country experiences whilst highlighting the role of local governance institutions in promoting economic development and the importance of collaboration between the private and public sectors for the process of drawing annual plans and strategies and for putting forward realistic projects and studies.
Geha spoke during a panel of experts in development, highlighting Lebanon’s developmental realities and the challenges faced.  He also spoke of successful relations that exist between Lebanese institutions and international donor organisations.  He presented the experience of the Chamber of Industry, Commerce and Agriculture in Zahleh and the Beqaa, especially the success recorded in replacing marijuana culture with grapevines in the areas of Deir el Ahmar, as well as the creation of an agricultural cooperative specifically for that purpose.  This specialised cooperative is also intending to set up a workshop for production and marketing.  Geha also spoke about the creation of Local Economic Development Agency (LEDA) which is a new organisational structure made possible with financial input from the UNDP and including representatives of the Chamber of Zahleh and the Beqaa in addition to representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture, cooperatives, farmers, the syndicate of beekeepers, LARI and  various universities.  Geha shared with the other participants the work experience of this new outfit, especially in relation to improving the quality of products from the Beqaa and supporting marketing based on the initial intervention of the Chamber in creating a Food Quality Control Bureau.  A quality trademark will be introduced soon to be used for labeling products which pass the quality control tests and so as to be a trademark for external marketing.

Source: Al-Diyar 10 December 2013
For further information on this conference, please consult the following link: “Family farming: A dialogue towards more sustainable and resilient farming in Europe and the world”