There is always another right way
As part of its plan to empower and train producer groups on sustainable cost-efficient practices that will allow farmers to improve the quality of their products and increase their net income, World Vision in Lebanon is providing greenhouse and open-field vegetables farmers with sessions and trainings to increase their knowledge. Eighty five farmers attended the sessions with World Vision in Akkar eager to learn new practices, from pest monitoring, composting, and soil sterilisation, to harvest and post-harvest practices for better marketing.
Ever since he was a little child, Ali used to go to the field with his father and grandfather to work in agriculture, “it is everything that I ever knew”, he says. He plants parsley, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower and cabbage, “I used to plant a lot more variety, but because some vegetables need more maintenance and supplies, I had to stop especially now within this crisis”, Ali declares.
When he first heard about the sessions, he was intrigued about learning new information that might help him and enrolled without any hesitation. “The information that they are giving us is beneficial, I am trying not to miss any session”, he states.
Ali and his peers are learning from professionals how to analyse soil and water, the right way to plant, how to prepare the soil, what are the right pesticides, the amount that they must use and a lot more. “Before the sessions, we watered the plants for long time and wasted a lot of water. But now with the new information that we have acquired, we learned the right amount to use and the efficient irrigation system that we can use”, Ali says proudly.
Besides the water, he learned how to save on pesticides and how to do compost as well. “Our understanding of technics was based on what we learned from experience, we never considered the scientific and professional technics until now”, he adds, “We used to apply the wrong amount of pesticides for example, without thinking about the cost, thanks to the consultant we learned the practices that we should avoid and how to calculate our expenses”.
“I was a tailor before, but for 30 years now, I have been working in agriculture and I love it”, Sabah, a farmer from Akkar, also attending the sessions, states. Like Ali, Sabah is delighted with the information she is getting from the professionals, and she believes she made the right choice by registering for the sessions, “Everyone keeps coming back because of how much important the information is”, she declares. Most Farmers are suffering now from the high prices of products, pesticides, and even gas to turn on the generator in order to water the plants. However, during these sessions, farmers are learning how to save. “What I found most useful is how to transform the waste to compost, that will help us save money”, Sabah says.
Like most Lebanese, farmers are struggling. They are clinging to any hope that will help them keep moving forward until the storm passes. And these sessions provided by World Vision, are the silver lining that they were looking for.