Small farmers in Lebanon victims of big cartels, debts and lack of social security

Al Hayat daily interviewed a number of small farmers of Beqaa, which includes some 250 acres of irrigated land and 150 thousand acres of rain-fed or dry land, in attempt to shed some light on key problems that largely continue to impede the development of the agricultural sector. One of the key problems which most farmers agree on is the monopoly of middlemen who control the domestic marketing and export of agricultural harvests. In this respect, farmer Hassan Haidar refereed to the well-established cartel of traders who buy agricultural products directly from the field at very cheap prices and then transport to wholesale markets where they are sold to distributors at much higher prices when compared to the original prices. Farmers noted that dealers often attribute low prices to poor quality, and falsely claim that imported goods which are dumped into the domestic markets are of a better quality. These farmers refuted the general claim of merchants but did acknowledge some shortcomings in the quality of their products and some weakness in knowledge resulting from inadequate agricultural extension services and the absence of support from public institutions. Al Hayat also pointed out to the drop in the number of Syrian workforce by 50-60% because of the tightened measures recently imposed by the Lebanese government. Furthermore, the newspaper indicated that small farmers will not benefit much from the recent government decision to subsidize maritime exports. Rather, it said, the main challenges for those small farmers is first finding enough labor to help with the harvest and then the setting of favorable price for their products. According to the latest comprehensive agricultural survey conducted back in 2010, Al Hayat noted that 75% of land-owning farmers do not benefit from any kind of social security. Over and above, farmers are constantly and desperately trying to develop their enterprise through using the latest technologies. For that they are heavily depended on funding from commercial banks. This has generated an additional problem, which is their inability to repay their debts. (Al Hayat, 6 August 2015)