New farmer’s protests while the government sets up committees!

Following the meeting on January 14 between Beqaa dairy farmers and the ministers of agriculture, industry and economy to discuss the constant fall in the prices of milk (https://goo.gl/ApGSeN), the new minister of agriculture, Ghazi Zu3ayter, called, after a joint meeting with dairy farmers, Milk Cooperatives Union and the Lebanese Council of Dairy Producers, for more cooperation between all parties in order to find the right solutions. A small study committee was formed to prepare a work plan that will be later submitted to the minister for proper actions. Zu3ayter also met with the delegation of poultry farmers in Lebanon to discuss the same problem, and also agreed as an outcome to form a committee to study the cost of production of broilers locally. Furthermore, citrus growers in the South staged on 1st of February a sit-in earlier, on Zahrani highway to protest what they called the smuggling of foreign agricultural products into the country, while citrus farmers in Akkar, staged a similar sit-in on February 2, during which the president of the Federation of Municipalities of Akkar warned of escalating actions. For his part, the mayor of Telm3yan waned that if the current deterioration continues agriculture could soon totally collapse. (The Daily Star, Al Mustaqbal, Al Diyar, February 2, 3, 5, 6, 2017)