BEIRUT: A vast majority of Lebanese farmers are not covered by the National Social Security Fund and other health programs, the results of a first-of-its-kind survey by the Agriculture Ministry show.
The results also show that 76 percent of all farmers exploit 82 percent of harvested land in Lebanon, with 91 percent of the farmers being male, and more than half being over the age of 45.
Fifty-eight percent of harvested land is located in the Bekaa region and 20 percent in the Northern governorate.
Forty-nine percent of the farmland has received irrigation by way of underground water tables.
Lebanese farmlands possess roughly 67,000 cows; 236,000 sheep; and 367,000 goats.
The ministry surveyed roughly 157,000 farmers living in 1,350 towns throughout Lebanon – the ministry states, however, that these figures represent only 75 percent of all farmers in the country. They were unable to extend their reach to the entirety of the farming population due to strict bureaucratic constraints, a statement from the ministry said.
Caretaker Agriculture Minister Hussein Hajj Hassan reiterated calls to establish autonomous chambers for farmers, something that would expedite ministry efforts to bolster a languishing sector, according to Hajj Hassan.
Lebanon’s agriculture sector currently receives less than 1 percent of total state expenditure, owing to successive divestments, namely in farm subsidies, over the last decade.