Minister of Agriculture supports protecting farmers from natural hazards amidst calls for compensation

The Minister of Agriculture, Akram Chehayeb, organized yesterday a meeting to discuss the possibilities of relieving farmers’ financial burdens and protecting them from natural hazards and disasters.  The meeting was attended by high ranking Ministry staff in addition to heads of directorates.  Chehayeb reviewed the impact of frost and drought on farmers and their harvest and said that all efforts should be mobilized to mitigate the negative impact and to assist farmers in resuming their work regardless of their regional, confessional or political affiliations. He thus stressed the need to strength the work of the Ministry centrally and regionally so as to help farmers overcome the effects of natural and economic disasters.
Within the same framework, and in an independent statement, the president of the farmers’ syndicate, Antoine Hoayek, called in the government to take a decision to compensate farmers for losses due to the recent wave of frost which hit the Bekaa as well as mountainous areas a few days ago.  He also called on the Higher Relief Council as well as the Lebanese Army to undertake an inspection of affected areas in order to assess damages and needed compensations.  Hoayek criticized the Lebanese Agricultural Research Institute which failed in its duty to prepare farmers on how to deal with the frost wave and did not provide them with advance warning.  He also blamed all those who have blocked since 2005 the enactment of the law to set up a public institution for agricultural security and for protection from disasters.
On another topic, Chehayeb commended the setting up of a joint coordination committee on food security recently formed of the directors general of the Ministries of Public health, Agriculture, Industry, Economy and Environment in addition to a representative of the Parliamentary health commission while calling on the staff of his Ministry not to allow for any margin of errors regarding this matter.  He also promised to strengthen and upgrade the Ministry laboratories so that they can abide by the standards of safe agriculture according to international food safety standards.
Source: Al-Diyar, Al-Mustaqbal, Al-Diyar 4 April 2014