Rashayya encourages local farming to support livelihoods

In the framework of boosting agriculture and reclaiming neglected fields for economic investment, the mayor of Rashayya, president of the Union of Municipalities of Jabal Sheikh, Sale7h Abu Mansur, launched a full-scale agricultural plan to help farmers and encourage residents to return to and invest in their land. In an interview with Al Diyar daily, Mansur explained that the initiative starts with plowing land, harvesting, milling and crushing of crops and grains using state-of-the-art machinery provided by the UNDP, as well as upgrading an ancient mill to this end. This, Mansur expounded, will meet the needs of rural people and reduce cost by 80% on farmers. The above scheme, he maintained, strengthens food security when farmers urgently need assistance to overcome grim living conditions, prohibitive price hike and the shortages in basic food items, in addition to the decline of the purchasing power of the Lebanese. (Al Diyar, May 30, 2020)