The contribution of agriculture to GDP has increased to 6.5% this year following government efforts || Newspapers (Arabic)

The Ministry of Agriculture organized, in collaboration with the FAO, an event at the UNESCO to celebrate the World Food Day.  The slogan of the event was "Rural Cooperatives Feed the World" and sought to highlight the important role that rural cooperatives play in developing and strengthening the agricultural sector.  The event was held under the auspices of the President of the Republic, General Michel Suleiman who noted that the contribution of agriculture to the GDP has increased from 5% to 6.5% this year indicating that "farmers now need to resort to cooperatives so that they can secure markets especially in the era of globalisation".

The Minister of Agriculture, Hussein Hage Hassan, highlighted the continuous support that the government extends to the agricultural sector and which resulted in "a radical and structural development through the national strategy that was recently developed".   The Minister added that the Cabinet is about to modernise and issue a number of new laws and decrees that would develop the structure and capacity f the Ministry of Agriculture and will increase its budget from 41 billion LBP in 2009 to 102 billion LBP in 2013.  He also added that the total budget allocated to the agricultural sector will increase from 120 billion LBP to 320 billion LBP in addition to the launching of a number of new programmes in partnership with regional organisations and covered by grants and loans secured during the past year and which in total amounted to approximately 103 million dollars.

Hage Hassan further reiterated that "the Ministry has made leaps in working towards the objectives set in its strategy and which revolve around increasing the contribution of agriculture in the GDP, in providing employment opportunities especially for women and youth, increasing food security especially for strategic products while increasing food safety and finally decreasing the deficit in the agricultural and food trade balances.

Participants in the event also discussed the challenges in the work of agricultural cooperatives in Lebanon as the Minister revealed that he has scrapped some 400 non-operational cooperatives out of a total of 1300 licensed cooperatives.  He also added that the Ministry has developed a national strategy to support cooperative work and to convince local farmers that they can gain from engaging in cooperatives.  He added that the Ministry will secure incentives amounting to 3 billion LBP which will benefit some150 cooperatives across Lebanon.  Finally, Hage Hassan concluded by adding that "despite the fact that international organizations have invested significant amounts of money to support cooperative work, there is still a problem in operating and managing the heavy equipments which they acquired hence the intervention of the Ministry in organising workshops to address the situation and strengthen the understanding and culture of cooperative work amongst farmers.

Source: As Safir, An Nahar and Al Mustaqbal