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Media Centre
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 - Many of Abu Hassan’s goats died during the 2006 war. He received several new ones under the FAO Early Recovery Project.
Tyre, Lebanon – “At first we thought it would only last a few days,” says Abu Hassan, whose large family owned 500 goats before the war. “Every day we hoped it would stop. But then we decided we couldn’t take it anymore, and we decided let’s go to Syria.”
But as Abu Hassan and others started walking with their goats towards Syria, they got caught in missile fire.
“When the missile exploded,” says Abu Hassan, “we fell on the ground and hid our faces, and the goats started to run. Some people continued to Syria, but I turned back.”
After the hostilities, Abu Hassan and his family found their house destroyed and hundreds of olive trees burned. “As soon as we rested a little bit,” he says, “we started counting the goats: 50 of the older ones and 25 of the little ones were missing.”
Goats supplied by a post-war FAO emergency project helped Abu Hassan and hundreds of other goat herders in southern Lebanon rebuild their herds. Each family received six young female goats, and “Shami” bucks imported from Cyprus were distributed to help reinvigorate the local “Baladi” goat population and increase milk production.  - Jars of “Labneh” in olive oil, ready for sale, were produced by a single mother of six in her home cheese-processing facility in Chabaa village, Lebanon.
Dalal Zahra is a single mother with four sons and two daughters. In remote Chabaa, in a village accessible only by four-wheel-drive, she runs a labneh cheese-processing business out of her house. Until the war, her sons herded the goats and her daughters helped her with the labneh.
When the conflict began, she says, “we took the goats and fled to Ein Ata in the Beqâa area. We sold some, and many died.”
With pasture land all around Chabaa contaminated by unexploded bombs and landmines, families opting to continue with goats now have to buy the feed and keep the animals in small pens or sheds. Many consider military service to be a safer career option than goat herding. Since the war, all four of Dalal Zahra’s sons have joined the Lebanese Army, with their mother’s blessing. She and one daughter concentrate on their labneh business.
The FAO early recovery livestock project provided Zahra and others like her with the tools and the training to improve milk handling and hygiene and expand their businesses. The market for labneh and other locally produced products is strong, with customers coming from as far as Beirut and sometimes even from abroad as expatriate Lebanese return home to visit or to resettle.  - Workers in a milk collection centre in Qana village, southern Lebanon. The centre was set up by FAO with support from Italian NGO Movimondo.
Marouahine, a Sunni village in a predominantly Shi’ite part of the country, is situated about 600 metres above sea level, with a commanding view of the Israeli border just to the south. Moussa Obeid and his wife Nada Ghannam received one Holstein heifer and her calf from the FAO project, along with one tonne of feed concentrate, veterinary support and basic training in caring for the animals.
“I had two cows before the war, and when I came back they were dead,” says Moussa Obeid, who is partially blind. “At first I didn’t believe it when they took our name (as potential project beneficiaries).”
The “FAO cow” and her calf are tethered in the walk-out basement of the family’s cinderblock home. Milk from the cow is feeding the family and paying for feed concentrate. They hope for a female calf next year, to breed with this year’s male, as a means of building up the family’s income.
This family, like each of the 200 households that received the pregnant heifers, received training in topics like artificial insemination, treating mastitis, preventing foot rot, weaning techniques and more. Laminated posters fixed to the walls of stalls and barns throughout southern Lebanon serve as a reminder of the key points.
Some farmers needed training more than others. However, a key criterion in selecting beneficiaries was experience, according to Chedly Kayouli, Chief Technical Advisor for the project. “If a farmer doesn’t have experience with cows, it’s useless to give him a cow. He’ll just sell it for the immediate income and there will be no long-term benefit to his livelihood or to the family’s food security.”
Beneficiaries were also selected on the basis of need, with priority given to female-headed households and the handicapped. Small-scale producers in the area surrounding Qana village bring their milk to a state-of-the-art collection centre set up by FAO – with support from the Italian non-governmental organization Movimondo – and turned over to the municipality to operate. In summer, people come from Beirut to Qana to buy milk and other dairy products, as do local food shops and supermarkets. The centre processes one half-tonne of milk per day during peak periods.
“Sometimes we have big orders and have to work all night,” says Hanane, one of the centre’s three employees. All three are local residents, trained by FAO in hygienic handling practices and the use of modern equipment for testing the milk’s pH and fat content.
—March 2009 |
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