The ENPARD South support programme team organised a workshop on the good use of pesticides and integrated agricultural production in Lebanon on 21 and 22 October 2017 in Beirut in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture. This event is a continuation of the activities and work conducted in Lebanon on the good agricultural practices and its application.
​
The overall objective of the workshop was to discuss the determinants and steps for a voluntary based national chart on pesticide use and integrated agricultural production and a technical specification document – per product and per territory – that will allow the farmers and cooperatives to have an integrated production monitoring system in the form of a label.
​
The workshop gathered a large and diverse audience: representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture from different regions in Lebanon (South, North, Bekaa, etc.), IDAL (Investment Development Authority in Lebanon), LARI (Lebanese Agricultural Research Institute), IMC (Mediterranean Institute of Certification), NGOs, farmers and producers.
​
The workshop was inaugurated by Mrs. Hanadi JAAFAR, ENPARD focal point and head of the Quarantine department in the Ministry of Agriculture. This was followed by a brief presentation of the ENPARD South support programme, previous activities in Lebanon, and objectives of the current workshop, by Dr. Hatem BELHOUCHETTE, CIHEAM-IAMM expert in charge of the ENPARD activities in Lebanon.
​
To enrich the debate and to drive forward reflection, Mr. Claude TRONEL, French expert from CEHM, presented the French experience of the establishment of an integrated agricultural approach for the apple value chain in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in the south of France. This overview of the project enabled a discussion on the five key steps of the establishment and implementation of a national chart and technical specification documents:
​
-
Validation of the value chain approach
-
Creation of a piloting committee
-
Proposal of a technical specifications document
-
Training and capacity building
-
Communication
​
During a second sequence, the audience was divided into two groups to follow the exchanges with a participatory group work approach. During this session, the five key steps stated above were thoroughly discussed and contextualised into the Lebanese experience. After which each group shared their work and commented on each section.
​
The main conclusions of the workshop and of the various discussions are the following:
​
-
The Ministry have attempted to pave the road to the formation of a technical specification document, through two initiatives: a work register at the farmer’s level to ensure a proper traceability system of the products and the elaboration of a phytosanitary guide. These initiatives have lacked success mostly due to improper follow up and insufficient updating;
​
-
The national chart will be established by the ENPARD team in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture;
​
-
The idea of creating a steering committee was widely accepted by the participants, which will have the role to create the technical specifications document, organise the control and update the document. It will gather representatives from all the groups of actors of the pesticides sector;
​
-
A sub-committee could be created at a regional level that will have the role of establishing and implementing a regional chart/technical specifications document, training, advising, and exerting control but also to determine labels depending on each region and territory;
​
-
There is a lack of a functional traceability system due to the deficiency of legislations and decrees, absence of record at the farmer’s level, lack of awareness and farmers mentality;
​
-
There are several organisations and institutions today that play a role in training and capacity building from the NGO sector (USAID, expertise France etc.), the private sector, control companies, cooperatives, and extension centres (Ministry of Agriculture);
​
-
There are several success stories in the establishment of a technical specifications document for certain products, such as tobacco, and in organic farming. In addition, to the case of the IMC which have managed to establish such a document for the apple sector;
​
-
An image should be established that could take form of a label, as part of the communication strategy that would unite Lebanese products under a framework of quality goods.
​
For the upcoming workshop, the ENPARD team and the Ministry of Agriculture will focus on the establishment of a work registry at the farmer’s level and a phytosanitary treatments guide. The establishment of these documents will be inspired from the work registry and phytosanitary guide that the Ministry of Agriculture produced in 2012, the IMC expertise and the French experience.
​
A draft of these two documents will be presented during the second workshop on integrated agricultural production at the end of November or beginning of December and discussed by participants during round tables and group works to modify and validate it.
​
A sub-regional workshop will be held early next year in cooperation with the Egyptian and Lebanese partners. The workshop will involve two days field visits on the establishment of the current traceability system in Egypt and their exports of agricultural products. The third day will be devoted to sharing of experiences and works achieved in the ENPARD South support programme in each country.
