Lebanon’s Minister of Agriculture: The olive tree will be the logo of our national and Arab dignity.

The ongoing war in southern Lebanon between the Lebanese resistance and the Israeli army is intensifying. The war, which began on October 9 of last year, has led to the destruction of vast areas of agricultural land, accompanied by the burning of forests of perennial trees, which will have a great impact on Lebanese citizens and wildlife in southern Lebanon, and this will have a great impact on Lebanese citizens and wildlife in southern Lebanon.

Yahoo News sat down with Lebanese Minister of Agriculture Dr. Abbas Hajj Hassan to talk about the challenges facing Lebanese agriculture.

Question 1 :  How has the war affected the agricultural sector in the south?

“There is no doubt that the war and Israeli aggression since the October War until today has greatly affected the agricultural sector in the south and also affected the agricultural sector in all of Lebanon, and therefore the seasons of last year and next year were greatly affected, because we were not able to harvest all the crops and prepare farmers for their lands in the south because they were exposed to daily bombing, and therefore this matter directly affected the agricultural sector in both plant and animal parts.”

Question 2 : What are the most prominent sectors affected by the war?

“We are talking about an Israeli war that affects stone and human beings, children, women, the agricultural, industrial, tourism and commercial sectors, and all these sectors have been affected.”

Question 3: Is the impact limited to the south or not?

“The Lebanese economy was affected on all Lebanese territories in one way or another, but it was limited to the south directly, so the impact was clear on production, economic yield, and national output from the share of agriculture in the south.”

Question 4: Will the damage to farms and agricultural fields lead to shortages in the local market? 

“Yes, this is what we saw during the holy month of Ramadan, there was a small shortage, but the increase in prices was obvious as a result of our failure to cultivate a large number of lands and vast areas in southern Lebanon, whether on the coasts or in high mountainous areas such as Marjayoun, Wazzani and border areas.”

Question 5 : How will the state compensate farmers and owners of food factories, especially since the country is going through an economic crisis?

“This question is very natural, and it is more natural that the state has moved more, it has set certain figures and started today to extend a hand to help and support the displaced Lebanese from their border villages, and therefore a plan has been developed in the Lebanese government, the integrated plan for each ministry separately, and for the government collectively, and once the war stops, the preparations and effects will begin, this plan is to help the southern people affected by the Israeli aggression. As for the owners of food factories, just like farmers and industrialists, there is also great damage in the public sector, as there are government buildings that have been damaged as a result of these aggressive operations and this barbaric aggression.”

Question 6 : What are the possible plans to compensate for the burned green spaces?

“Here we are talking about what we have launched as an agricultural planting, as for every olive tree burned by the enemy, we will plant ten trees, and we stressed in this context during our Arab tour, where we heard good words from a number of Arab regional partners and also international organizations in helping in this framework, whether in terms of planting forests or the subject of olives. As we won in 2000, and the title of our victory was that the tobacco sapling was one of the titles of our dignity, so today we say and affirm that the olive tree will be the logo of our national and Arab dignity.”

Question 7: Are there statistics for the affected sectors?

“Yes, the Ministry of Agriculture has conducted surveys that cover about 80% of the actual size of the damage as a result of direct shelling and the targeting of work crews. We try as much as possible to make our figures 100% accurate, and therefore these statistics that are in the media, and the figures that exist for forest or fruit trees, organic plants or others, as well as in the poultry sector, cows, goats, and all the local sector.”

Final question: Is there any communication with the relevant international organizations?

“Yes, we started communicating from the first day of the hostilities with organizations, specifically the FAO, as well as other organizations such as UNDP and WFP, and these organizations are working in Lebanon. We communicated with them and put them in our vision and told them about the figures, and in turn they requested the figures to react, and we are counting a lot on there being help from these donor bodies and from friendly and brotherly countries, because today the signs and consequences of the war are no doubt great, but we always count on Lebanon having supportive friends in times of distress.”