Agriculture in Lebanon
[7] Lebanon's agriculture, which offers fertile land, landscaped terraces, and fresh and healthy produce, faces several challenges in recent years.
The private sector is gradually taking advantage of new but small scale opportunities offered by organic farming and high-value agricultural produce.
[8] The ongoing economic crisis in Lebanon and devaluation of the Lebanese pound have had adverse effects on the agricultural sector, leading to increased costs for vital imports like seeds and fertilizers.
The economic strain intensifies pre-existing difficulties for farmers, encompassing escalating debts and inefficient agricultural practices.
[9] Agriculture in Lebanon dates back to Phoenician times, with the first trading activities taking place in the eastern Mediterranean.
The Phoenicians tended vineyards, made wine and exported a significant amount to neighboring countries such as Egypt, Greece and Assyria.
During Arab rule in the Middle Ages, the country enjoyed an economic boom, in which the Lebanese harbors of Tyre and Tripoli were busy with shipping of industrial and agricultural products.
This period of economic growth was later oppressed with the beginning of the Ottoman rule and the high taxes imposed on the Lebanese production.
In the first half of the 20th century, Lebanon had regained its past agricultural boom, where almost one-fourth of its land had been cultivable (the highest proportion in the Arab world).
After the 1950s and the prosperous decades that followed, agriculture faced a decline with the beginning of the Lebanese Civil War and after the Israeli invasion in the early 1980s.
After the valley came under Syrian control, the drug crop left the country by sea through Christian-controlled ports to Cyprus, overland to Syria or sometimes through Israel to Egypt.
[6] In the early 1990s, the Lebanese government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) launched an initiative to replace drug crops with legitimate alternatives.
In recent years governmental projects such as Export Plus have put into action the encouragement of local fruits and vegetables production, quality control and investment incentives for farmers in order to boost their produce and raise the level of the Lebanese horticulture industry.
The tables below show the exported quantities of major crops (Metric tons) which include potatoes, apples and grapes, from 2002 to 2005: Viticulture in Lebanon, which is considered a thriving industry nowadays, is mainly concentrated in the Beqaa Valley with wineries producing an annual amount of approximately 600,000 cases of wine.
Of the dairy cows, 40% are of the local breed, 26% are purebred Friesian imported from Germany and the Netherlands, and 34% are crosses between Baladi and Canadian Holstein.
[8] The Beqaa Valley, situated near the Syrian border, serves as a focal point for Lebanon's drug industry, characterized by the cultivation, production, and trade of various narcotics within the region.
Despite ongoing efforts, the government's inability to control the drug-producing Beqaa Valley and address illicit Captagon factories allows for the persistent occurrence of drug trades, impacting Lebanon's economy and regional stability.
Through loans and grant agreements, the government has implemented large-scale irrigation projects and has taken steps to ban a long list of hazardous pesticides.
However, there are many problems facing the agricultural development with effective extension programs, use of water-conserving irrigation techniques, and rational use of agrochemicals still scant or localized.
A major dependence of Lebanese landowners on foreign labor, namely Syrian refugees working informally, is also a challenge which came as a result of the lack of importance and investment given to the sector.
