A special agricultural credit programme focusing on women || Newspapers (Arabic)

The Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Hussein Hajj Hassan, and the Head of the EU Delegation in Lebanon, Ambassador Angelina Eichhorst signed, together yesterday with the chair of the board of Kafalat, Dr. Khater Abou Habib, a grant contract amounting to 3.5 million Euros allocated to a credit programme for rural and agricultural development. The agreement falls within the framework of the Agricultural and Rural Development Programme financed by the European Union and implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture.

This new programme seeks to support the agricultural sector through building institutional capacities, strengthening rural communities and supporting initiatives which aim to meet the MDGs according to the Ministry’s strategic plan for 2010-2014.  The programme also aims to facilitate the access of small farmers and cooperatives to loans and focuses on women in rural areas as well as young farmers through increasing their income and creating new work opportunities throughout the agricultural production cycle in both rural and urban areas.

The Minister of Agriculture highlighted the importance of this new agreement noting that farmers will be able to break from the current lending cycles which imposes high interest rates often reaching 20 to 40% of the loan amount.

(Source: Assafir – Al Diyar and Al Mustaqbal 29 January 2013)