“Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute to real wealth, good morals, and happiness”. This saying by Thomas Jefferson stresses the idea that everything begins with the Motherland, that we should invest in, in order to contribute to the welfare of countries and humanity. Starting from this belief, and in its 2018-2020 strategy, the Lebanese Organization for Studies and Training (LOST) places improving living conditions and developing economic capabilities as a priority. This is mainly implemented through developing professional and managerial capacities that are working and suitable for work in the productive sectors, especially in agriculture. The “Agriculture and Value Chain Development” project (AVD) implemented by LOST in partnership with Welthungerhilfe (WHH), comes to serve these strategic goals and develop agricultural value chains in every way possible.
Baalbeck-Hermel governorate relies primarily on agriculture as the main economic sector. Also, most of Baalbeck-Hermel inhabitants work in agriculture and most of these farmers are small farmers that need support. AVD project activities are designed to support these farmers in all phases starting from plantation to marketing and selling the final products and crops. The project also aims at introducing new value chains’ techniques and new market channels that will help the farmers sell their crops at good prices, thus boosting economy and bringing welfare to this sector as a whole. This will be achieved through incorporating farmers in already-established agricultural cooperatives, or establishing new ones. 600 farmers (Lebanese and Syrians) will be directly benefitting from the project activities through various support mechanisms.
For the time being, applications are being filled by interested farmers at LOST centers. The validation process is running in parallel with the registration phase to assess and validate the needs of these interested farmers. For this agricultural season, vegetable farmers are the project’s target and are being visited for validation purposes in different villages all over the Baalbeck-Hermel governorate. Capacity building trainings and follow-up activities will proceed as soon as all in-need and interested farmers are identified so not to miss the season.
The efforts being put to flourish the agricultural sector in Baalbeck-Hermel area through this project are a big asset for the farmers. As everything begins with the Motherland, we must always cooperate to support the agricultural sector for land prosperity and human welfare, and this is mainly what the “Agriculture and Value Chain Development” project is thriving for.
