Local Editor, 20-11-2009

The Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Hussein Hajj Hassan continued his visit to the Italian capital Rome - representing Lebanon to the 36-session meetings of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations - FAO, where he held a meeting with representatives of the International Fund for Agricultural Development-IFAD at its center of Rome.

Director of the Middle East and North Africa Section (Program Manager), Dr. Nadim Khoury was in his reception, along with all the Lebanese employees in the Fund and senior staff.

During the meeting the Minister presented his vision to develop the agricultural sector and the future work plan in Lebanon. He focused on the development and issuance of the required legislation (especially those in the House of Representatives), on securing the required human administrative and technical element for the Ministry and the Green Project, and on ensuring appropriate budgets for advancing the agricultural sector.

He stressed the importance of agricultural guidance and quality control and production, stressing the need in future projects to focus on securing irrigation water and its entire related means. He also covered the extent of poverty in Lebanon, especially in Baalbek - Hermel and Akkar areas, and the level of deterioration in the agricultural sector and the importance of reconsidering its significance.

Minister Hajj Hassan thanked the IFAD staff members for their efforts in supporting Lebanon and wished them success. He also offered special thanks to Ambassador Melhem Misto for the effective role he plays in the FAO and with IFAD Fund.

Dr. Khoury also welcomed Minister Hajj Hassan, congratulating him on behalf of the Fund for his nomination as minister of agriculture, and gave a presentation of the projects to be implemented by the Fund with Lebanon, including: HASSAD project for building mountain ponds (a loan of $4 million), and the project of reviewing agricultural strategy (a gift of $600 thousand).

He expressed his wishes for speeding up the signing process of the loan contract, acceptance of the gift, and approval to receive the Spanish donation for the special mountain ponds project at a cost of $2.1 million.
Dr. Khoury also expressed the Fund's readiness to provide all support to Lebanon and to seek to provide all any other related needs.

Director of the Middle East and North Africa program, Mr. Munif Noorullah presented the idea of small ‘Micro Finance' loans to small scale farmers and its significance in this period, especially after the failure to implement the special law related to the National Bank for Agricultural Development, explaining the process of applying this program in a number of developing and poor countries.

The director of Qatari programs, Dr. Abdel Aziz Marzouk announced the allocation of $200 thousand for Lebanon to study the possibility of applying micro-credit in Lebanon within a period not exceeding the coming month of February.