The Ministry of Agriculture and the FAO deliver dairy and milk production equipments to women farmers of the North

An event was organized at the Marine Sciences Institute in Batroun on August 24th 2013 to celebrate the delivery of dairy and milk production equipments in order to improve milk quality in the Northern Mohafazat. The event which was attended by farmers, both women and men, who came from the Cazas of Minyeh, Doniyeh, Becharry, Zghorta, Koura and other villages from the Caza of Batroun, was modified and restricted to the delivery of equipments and not of the certificate celebration in observance of mourning following the bloody explosions of Tripoli last Friday

This project was funded through the Lebanese Recovery Fund, implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and the FAO and also included training workshops on dairy production, maintenance of electric milking equipments and on milk quality and hygiene.

The representative of FAO, Dr. Shazli Kayyouli, noted that these activities were selected in order to improve the poor conditions of home production of dairy products especially in terms of meeting hygiene and cleanliness standards.  He also added that the project had previously undertaken a study which covered more than 2000 farmers and producers of the area in order to identify challenges, needs and priorities for intervention and support.

Bandar Lagha, a farmer from Korsita  (from the caza of Batroun),  who helps her husband in their dairy factory and who benefited from the project clarified that they have a small factory that purchases milk from the local suppliers in their village. She adds that they used traditional ways to produce dairy which they the sold on the Tripoli markets.  

As a result of the project, Lagha noted that they now use modern means of production which are less labour intensive and  with the result that their products are now cleaner and of better quality

For her part, Fatima Mohammad Al - Khalil from Hawara, a mother of three, noted that she has received an electrical milking machine which has facilitated her work especially since she is an old woman and has been milking her cows by hand to support her eight daughters and her blind husband. She added that her cows provide the only livelihood to the family and that she will now be able to improve her livelihoods thanks to the machineries that she has received.

Source: Al Mustaqbal 26 August 2013