Lebanon is facing an unprecedented period of multiple crises and challenges that calls for a clear identification of national priorities and solid partnerships to address immediate recovery needs, build longer term resilience and pave the way for a transformative sustainable and inclusive development. The agriculture sector and the agrifood systems are highly affected by the ongoing crises, but they can play a critical positive contribution to the socio-economic recovery.

With technical support from FAO, the Ministry of Agriculture recently formulated the National Agriculture Strategy 2020-2025 (NAS) that reflects both the immediate and long-term priorities of the agrifood sector in Lebanon following stakeholders’ consultations with its national and international partners.

As the country’s economic outlook remains highly uncertain, the NAS is purposely considered as a living document, subject to regular monitoring and open to continuous dialogue and updates to ensure relevance and responsiveness to the needs emerging in the rapidly evolving Lebanon context.

The NAS is also a tool to facilitate evidence-based decision-making for the stakeholders involved in the agrifood sector. While it primarily serves as a strategic guiding document for the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), it aims to reach out all stakeholders involved in the agriculture, water and natural resources, food and nutrition security sector – within the public institutions as well as among external actors, development partners and private entrepreneurs and their organizations.

 The NAS long-term Vision is to make the agrifood system a main contributor to the achievement of food security and a key driver of resilience and transformation of the Lebanese economy into a productive economy. 

The NAS suggests a comprehensive national approach in various sub sectors of agriculture and agri food in production, trade, social protection, environmental sustainability, adaptation and mitigation to climate change and rural development, thus, its core structure is built around five strategic axes (pillars), structured in programmatic areas of interventions (programmes). The five pillars are the following:

Pillar 1:      Restoring the livelihoods and productive capacities of farmers and producers

Pillar 2:      Increasing agricultural production and productivity

Pillar 3:      Enhancing efficiency and competitiveness of agrifood value chains

Pillar 4:      Improving climate change adaptation and sustainable management of agrifood systems and natural resources

Pillar 5:      Strengthening the enabling institutional environment

Monitoring and stakeholders dialogue are key to keep momentum and relevance to NAS initiatives. The regular monitoring and communication mechanism related to the NAS will allow to identify progress towards the set targets, but also to facilitate an evidence-based stakeholders’ dialogue in order to provide continuously relevant strategic guidance. The MoA will play a critical role in this process, and its success depends on joining efforts with other relevant institutions.

Both English and Arabic versions of the Strategy can be downloaded from the website of the Ministry of Agriculture

English

Arabic