Lebanon’s struggle to feed its people

The curvy, narrow road that leads up to Arsal reveals a few clues about what people in this Lebanese border town do for a living.

To the east, parts of the Anti-Lebanon mountain ranges are unevenly jagged. To the west, open-pit mines, waiting for those big chunks of mountain rocks to fill their core.

Stone quarries and hilltop farms provide vital income for Arsal.

Stone quarries and hilltop farms provide vital income for Arsal.

While quarrying has exhausted the mountain’s exterior with relentless blasting and drilling, agriculture has found a much kinder use of the backyard ranges. These two vocations have in their own ways carried Arsal through hard times, but that doesn’t seem to be lasting for long.

The deep roots of collapse

The gloves are off: Farmers in Lebanon are fighting to save their only way to make a living.

The gloves are off: Farmers in Lebanon are fighting to save their only way to make a living.

The near-collapse of the Lebanese economy, and the free-fall in the pound rate against the US dollar, is blamed for every problem here. Water scarcity and power shortages have left lands thirsty. Normally of nominal cost, pesticides, fertilisers and seeds are now out of reach for those who most need it.

The ridges have long provided a perfect environment for crops. The rich soil, farmers say, has saved Arsal’s agriculture from a total collapse.

Fuel costs have kept Ali away from his land

Fuel costs have kept Ali away from his land

“I have lost 60 per cent of my crop total since the crisis and now only rely on hilltop crops like cherries and apricots for a living. Farming is in real trouble here.”

That cost has been passed on to families and consumers through an informal pricing mechanism. One lady at the vegetable market remarked with irony: “Remember how radishes were the analogy for everything cheap? Who can afford those now?”

Work around the clock to eat

Tired hands: No respite for families in their search for the next meal.

Tired hands: No respite for families in their search for the next meal.

The inflation, which has become hard to comprehend, has outstripped wages and deemed any maths pointless. In the month leading to Ramadan, food prices jumped by 40% according to official statistics. Lebanon, once in the middle-income bracket, is for the first time among countries with a looming hunger crisis.

Figures from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a tracker of global food crises, show that 306,000 people in Lebanon are in the fourth out of five phases on the hunger scale. Only Phase 5, or what is described as catastrophe or famine stage, is worse.

The last Ramadan illustrated that struggle, with the average cost of food, including fruits, vegetables, and other staples, soaring by 25 per cent ahead of the holy month according to official figures. Kurjia, a Syrian mother in Arsal had been tracking those relentless jumps in prices.

“Everything is very expensive in Ramadan; sugar, meat, vegetables,” she says.

“The situation keeps getting worse. Meat is four times what it was. Tomatoes, ten times. People have to work around the clock just to feed their children. They have to borrow to eat. It is worse than last year. Wages have not kept up with the crazy prices.”

Kurjia says the only way food prices have gone is upwards.

Kurjia says the only way food prices have gone is upwards.

Spoiled vegetables

Khaled stands in the middle of a long row of greenhouses, made out of plastic film. The soil smells warm and alive. Left and right are a variety of saplings of all kinds, zucchini, aubergine, pepper and much more. At first glance, everything looks like it’s thriving, but a closer look reveals a different reality.

“These aubergines have been there for two months now. This is what they have given,” he says, pointing to the spoiled vegetable scattered on the floor.

“I can’t even get to the end of the season. I am supposed to fertilise three times, but I can only afford to do it once. The loss is inevitable.”

Khaled is not alone. He belongs to a large group of smallholder farmers struggling in Akkar, a city in North Lebanon that makes up 25 per cent of the country’s total cultivated land.

Akkar tops the list of food insecure areas in Lebanon. People here say that the farmers themselves, the feeders of the nation, can’t even feed themselves as their cultivations and harvests shrink further.

Khaled and three other farmers we spoke to in the region say the market is dominated by a group of traders, widely known as Samasira or ‘middlemen’ who control market prices. Farmers have no say in how much their harvest is worth.

The current system ensures that those smallholders are stuck in an endless cycle of debt. Pre-season, farmers borrow money in the form of credit from traders. In return, they are obliged to sell all their harvest exclusively to the trader, at a price that he decides, based on agreement with other traders.

As the Lebanese pound keeps dipping, farmers have to pay at the current exchange rate, not the one they borrowed at. With the unstoppable decline in the price of the pound, the debt could potentially raise substantially. A farmer mentioned borrowing when one US dollar equalled 45,000 pounds. At the time of writing, the rate was 97,000 pounds for every dollar. He would have to pay back the debt at the new rate.

“We need an alternative. Whatever that is. There is no support whatsoever. Farmers are seriously considering quitting altogether. I am one of them,” says Khaled.

Khaled has watched his harvest total diminish year after year.

Khaled has watched his harvest total diminish year after year.

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Some way out?

Can a local production-consumption solution help Lebanon cope?

Can a local production-consumption solution help Lebanon cope?

As Lebanon navigates its worst economic crisis in decades, the question is: what can be done?

Demands for solutions that cut costs for both farmers and consumers have been growing. A road back to affordability is possible.

Across Lebanon’s farming communities, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has been promoting sustainable farming methods that rely on strengthening the food system.

One solution is localised production and consumption, where farmers and consumers are linked directly or through approved cooperatives to cut short a long chain that puts profit ahead of affordability.

Lea Salameh, monitoring and evaluation officer at the American University of Beirut’s Environment and Sustainable Development Unit (ESDU), says supporting food systems that are local and climate-smart can help turn things around for the sector. The unit works with NRC to train 50 people on the best food production methods and assist them in replicating such skills in their households or potential jobs.

“Local food production has to be at the forefront of the food chain now. In the long run, this is an opportunity to produce food ourselves using sustainable methods. Following our ancestors' lead, we can produce more sustainably. Of course, Lebanon still needs to meet a lot of its food security needs starting at an individual and household level.”

Fair Trade is another organisation working with NRC to support 120 farmers on good practices that can help them grow and market their crops.

Benoit Berger, programmes director at Fair Trade, agrees that opportunity exists. “You can see that approach all over the world,” he says. “People don’t want fruits or vegetables that come from the other side of the world, because of the carbon footprint and the unnatural ways of growing. It is still a new topic here in Lebanon, but we have to explore these short value chains from production straight to distribution.

“Even with all these crises In Lebanon, you may see that Lebanon is ahead of the rest of the world. Because [Lebanon is] facing the challenges that all the world will be facing eventually. The world will have to deal with fuel and power shortages.

“So whenever the Lebanese find a solution to a problems, I say: 'you are exploring for the others'.”

The solution is there ready for the taking. And it could help Lebanon secure some of its urgent food needs.

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