Lebanese Agriculture has been experiencing a significant decline for the last thirty years.
Fact 1:
The most affected agricultural sector is the micro one: small lands which represent 80% of the current farms in Lebanon. Agricultural activities have little income effect, therefore tend to favour the rural exodus of youth.
Fact 2:
The high cost of domestic factors is leading to land abandonment; it began 30 years ago and has reached today more than 25% of the utilized agricultural area.
Fact 3:
Only 2% of farmers are below 25 years, 13% are below 35 years against 23% who are aged over 65 years.
The permanent agricultural workforce is aged, which will quickly pose a generational problem.
Fact 4:
Very few Lebanese farmers perform exclusively agricultural activities and 2 / 3 of them are often required to have other parallel activities, mainly for financial reasons.
Fact 5:
Finally, employment opportunities for women in rural areas are relatively weak or absent for cultural explanations usually.
You can either see this as a hopeless case or as an urgency to bring change. We really hope you choose with us the second option.
Be innovative and react, do it for you, your children and generations to come.
Info Source: UNDP, Lebanon 2008-2009, The national human development report, March 2009.
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