Stories from the Field

Cultivation of land and farming are amongst the most basic of human activities. Although we take it for granted, self sufficiency in farming is vital for a community, especially in troubled regions.

As well as providing a source of food, the agricultural sector is a major force in the local economy in remote rural areas in Lebanon and, more importantly, in many areas it is the major or only source of employment. 8% of the actual Lebanese labor force is occupied by the agricultural sector. For farmers and their workers the success of a farm or cultivation — sometimes only a handful of cattle even — can be the difference between hope and poverty. Even the ability to send children to school and pay for their learning materials can depend on basic agriculture and healthy livestock.

Given this, imagine the consequences when a farmer loses his crop or livestock to a natural or human-made disaster, such as the Lebanese-Israeli war in 2006 where 1 600 high-yielding milking cows and more than 20 000 goats were lost in one month in the south alone, as well as hundreds of thousands hectares of rich agricultural lands. These were lost/destroyed either by unexploded ordnances (more than 40% of cluster bombs have not been cleared yet,) direct bombardments or by ruined direct markets. In addition, farms in rural Lebanon suffer from diverse problems ranging from poverty to lack of awareness. This places an influence on the single household itself whether by the income provided by the man of the family, or women or children and their education. These conditions lead to many other problems related to health and sanitary issues. Access to a good nutritious meal is becoming a serious risk for children in rural areas.

“Imagine also the way in which a life can be improved with a small investment in establishing a farmer,” explained Rabih Yazbeck, HCI Regional Director. “Building on decades of experience in agriculture development programs in the region, HCI’s new program aims to help low-income and needy farmers establish themselves,” Mr. Yazbeck concluded.

HCI’s new project, Helping Hands, targets primarily war-affected regions in the South of Lebanon as well as in the Bekaa Valley.

HCI and its partners in Nabatieyh in the South, Joun in Mount of Lebanon and partners in the Bekaa valley will conduct surveys in each of the targeted areas to select humanitarian cases that can be included in the project. Three hundred beneficiaries will be targeted in the first phase.

People with special needs in Nabatieyh will be assisted to set up small plots of mixed crops; low-income farmers in Joun will be provided with pesticides, fertilizers and insecticide spraying; small farmers in the Bekaa Valley will be coached on the selection, planting, care, harvesting, post-harvesting handling and marketing methods and strategies; and, technical assistance on plant problem diagnosis (pest, disease, nutritional and physiological disorders of produce).

Extension workers will also work with farmers on developing new/direct markets and marketing and pricing strategies. Farmers will be encouraged on clustering of similar or complementary productions, on joint promotion and marketing, on cooperation and collective support for farming which can secure the viability and complementarities of the actions.

Livestock farmers will also be provided with technical and veterinarian assistance, as well as subsidized dairy cows, goat, sheep, and honey bees for the neediest farmers, especially those who have incurred losses during the 2006 war.

HCI launched this week its new project in Lebanon, the Farm to School program, with the objectives of improving the economic stability of low-income local small farmers in rural areas, providing jobs for vulnerable local women in food preparation, providing healthy meals for thousands of poor students, improving the nutritional health of poor school-aged children, increasing school attendance among poor students, and educating students on healthy eating habits.

Farm to School program brings healthy food from local farms to thousands of poor school children at schools located in low-income remote villages. Vulnerable women, particularly widows and women with special needs, will be provided jobs in food preparation. It is a win-win for everyone.

Moreover, the program teaches students about the path from farm to fork, and promotes healthy eating habits that can last a lifetime. At the same time, use of local products in school meals and educational activities provides a new direct market for farmers in the area and lessens environmental impacts of transporting food through long distances.

The program desires to support community-based food systems, strengthen family farms, provide jobs for vulnerable women, provide food supplement for poor students and improve student health. As soon as the poor students’ health improves, they will automatically regard the healthy eating habits as responsible for this improvement. Consequently, they will, more possibly, adopt these healthy habits for life and maybe spread them to other unfortunate members of the family who have no chance of this “luxury”. This program, as mentioned above, helps students, family farms, and vulnerable women. In this way, the family farm owners will have better hopes of making a direct living, the students will be motivated to get an education, and the women will benefit of their wasted time. These benefits are not limited to economy and education, but also it affects the psychological state of all these subjects, thus collectively improving the mental state of a big part of the village.

On the long-term, the program will introduce waste management programs like composting, and experiential education opportunities such as planting school gardens, cooking demonstrations and farm tours.

“My name is Abeer.

I snuck into the pocket space under the stairs and settled on a worn rubber tire. I took into myself a rusty-bladed knife in a box of wood shavings, and watched the crystal bubbles in clear olive-oil jugs, and mourned.

My fuzz-head torn-shorts brother sat cross-legged on the ground beside me, and he held my hand in his so brown, scab-kneed little urchin thinking thoughts deep by the rusty-handled hoes. We sat, us two, drifting between time and place, the air so still and dry it burned our skins- but did not burn the hurt engraved underneath-sitting amidst ruins of an ancient town, already forgetful of the fairy foot-falls of elfin children, the glorious frivolity in their pearly-toothed grins.

I inched close wondering- it was the first reverberating life motion, memories in this garden-climbing a shiny-leafed fig tree- Tripoli, Lebanon, and the scorching abyss of the dark planting hole, seeds dropped down deep, nothing shaded, only burnt-black bright migraine-sun-and brown-skinned children sitting hollow-eyed each on a ladder rung propped up against a pomegranate tree, dread in small hands gripping splintery wood, watching the dust settle amidst the rubble of a now-sky-roofed house.

My father is dead. My home, it is ruined, racked by the explosion that took so much away from us. Our family is destitute, our basic needs for food, clothing, shelter- they are all unmet. It is with despair we look to the future. We are deprived of the paternal care that gives us good homes and a chance at a decent education. We are deprived of the capable love that can erase the dread we face our future with, bring back the frivolity in our smiles and set our lives moving again in a direction where we will not have to watch the dust settle over our ruin.

But there is a beacon of hope. My little brother, Ahmed, only 5 years old, has been sponsored by HCI for two years now. It is the only source of income for my family now.”

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