Women account for 17% of dairy farmers in Lebanon

The project for the Revival and Rehabilitation of the Milk Sector in the Bekaa and Hermel-Akkar was concluded yesterday in the presence of General Director of Agriculture Ministry Louis Lahoud representing Minister Akram Chehayeb. Lauding the success of the initiative, Lahoud noted its key accomplishments, mainly, ensuring a raise in the price and quality of the produced milk and a parallel decline by 85% in the level of milk return by dairy products companies for low quality. Lahoud went on to say that since its inception in 2009, the project achieved a high level of competence which brought about a significant leap in the sector during a relatively short period of time. This, Lahoud underlined, has motivated involved authorities to extend the terms of the project for two additional years so as to allow it to further extend the size of its beneficiaries. Lahoud summarized the specific achievements of the project as follows: 1) Scope of work: The project has targeted over two thirds of the Lebanese territory, covering nearly 80-85% of the total number of milking cows. 2)  Beneficiaries: It has targeted small dairy farmers to ensure thee development of their enterprises, noting that 78% of the total 3750 dairy farmers in Lebanon come from poor or extremely poor communities. 3)  Role of rural women: Particular attention was given to women who constitute about 17% of the total dairy farmers. This has enabled the project to support some 350 households whose breadwinners are women, through the provision of small and medium processing tools. 4)  Development of cooperatives: The project led to the setting up of 32 dairy product cooperatives run by over 300 farmers. 5) Capacity building: the project trained some 2000 dairy farmers in various areas such as adherence to hygiene in the processing of milk, raising awareness about nutrition factors of milk production, in addition to the printing and distribution of some 20000 guidebooks and educational posters. (Al Mustaqbal, 30 July 2015)