{"id":14446,"date":"2020-01-10T02:52:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-10T00:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/minaretproject.com\/?p=14436"},"modified":"2020-09-06T23:23:37","modified_gmt":"2020-09-06T20:23:37","slug":"success-story-jdaidet-el-chouf-lebanon-agriculture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minaretproject.com\/success-story-jdaidet-el-chouf-lebanon-agriculture\/","title":{"rendered":"Success Story in Agriculture from Jdaidet el Chouf, Lebanon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Lebanon ranked 76th\u00a0out of 188 countries in the United Nations Human Development Report. It has\u00a0been heavily affected by the Syrian crisis since 2011 and has the highest number of refugees per capita.\u00a0The increase in population, decrease in water availability and neglect of the agriculture sector by the\u00a0government are negatively affecting food production and food security and have forced many farmers\u00a0to abandon their lands and migrate to cities. Lebanon depends mainly on food imports to secure\u00a0its national need of nutrients where more than 50% of Lebanon\u2019s food is imported, while food\u00a0exports only constitute 16.5%. Agriculture is important to the entire population of Lebanon, farmers and consumers, contributing\u00a0about 5.5% to the GDP, and about 60 % of the population relies directly or indirectly on agricultural\u00a0activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to an ESCWA report, 49% of Lebanese people are reportedly worried about their ability to access\u00a0enough food, and 31% of them stating that they were unable to eat healthy and nutritious food over\u00a0the course of a year. 28.5% of people in Lebanon live in poverty, including 8% that live in extreme poverty,\u00a0surviving on less than $2.4 per day. Food security in the country is a major concern of the Government\u00a0of Lebanon, but efforts to tackle it are hampered by deficiencies in qualified human resources to lead\u00a0such efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jdeidet El-Chouf Municipality: MINARET\u2019s Approach<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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According to observation by locals, water flow from natural resources at some locations has decreased almost by half in the last 30 years. In Jdaideh, a major water resource is available from the Barouk river, however, lack of energy availability prevents access to that water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agriculture was historically the most significant source of income in Jdeidet El-Chouf but has decreased over the years. Currently, agriculture is a self-sufficient practice constituting only a secondary source of income for most households. Several factors contributed to this regress, the main driver being the war, which lead to the abandonment of agricultural land. Then, due to urban growth, and activity development in the area, the population shifted towards services (commerce, education, banking, etc.) which lead to an ageing of the farmer workforce and a lack of interest of the younger generations in the sector. Water scarcity in the dry season added to the lack of sustainable irrigation methods as well as the vulnerability of this sector to climate change, and unavailability of a market to sell products. Agriculture in Jdeidet El-Chouf became a low-income profession generating low revenues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MINARET\u2019s Nexus approach aims to address these challenges through the synergy between water, energy, and food, by utilizing renewable energy technologies, \u00a0smart water economy, and agricultural best practices. One of the goals of implementing the Nexus approach in Jdaideh is to increase access to water in order reduce the barriers that make agriculture an undesirable profession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One of the completed elements of the MINARET water pilot action in Lebanon involved providing 25 farms with water tanks and a solar water pump to improve their access to water from the Barouk river. In addition to providing the 25 farms with tanks, installing a water pump at the river, and solar panels to power it, a 6-km water canal was repaired. The canal was supposed to improve access to water for some of the farms from the river partially through natural means (gravity), and by using the pump to provide water to the canal in order to reach all of the remaining farms. The results of the project, however, exceeded MINARET\u2019s expectations, as the repaired canal began providing water through gravity more efficiently than expected, and the canal provided water to around 80 farmers in total.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lebanon faces an energy crisis represented in the continuous electricity cuts at households and thus the dependecy on independent energy providers who sell electricity on a small scale in different areas of the country. The Jdaideh Women\u2019s Organization provides electricity to 22,000 users through diesel generators, emitting 100 kg of CO2<\/sub>\u00a0per day while spending around $2,000 a month on diesel. To mitigate this social and environmental problem, MINARET has provided the organization with a 40-kW photovoltaic system that will reduce their dependency on diesel. In addition to the reduction in diesel use and greenhouse gas emissions, using renewable energy has generated a stream of monthly savings, and a revolving fund has been established that will make use of $2,000 a month. The savings will be used to benefit the community through relaxed loans that allow locals to finance small environmental and socioeconomic projects. It is also tied to the farms\u2019 project by providing money to new farmers who wish to take advantage of the improved access to water in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MINARET\u2019s other interventions in Lebanon include installing solar panels at a\u00a0water<\/strong>\u00a0pumping and filtration station<\/strong>, which will allow it to provide fresh drinking water to 20,000 people 24-hours a day instead of its current 12-hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MINARET has also replaced part of the old street lights and the municipal building\u2019s lights with LED lights, coupled with a 6 kW PV system which in total reduces GHG emissions by 45 tons each year.
https:\/\/www.horizondge.org\/post\/reviving-agriculture-in-lebanon-a-minaret-success-story-in-jdeideh-municipality<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Lebanon ranked 76th\u00a0out of 188 countries in the United Nations Human Development Report. It has\u00a0been heavily affected by the Syrian crisis since 2011 and has the highest number of refugees per capita.\u00a0The increase in population, decrease in water availability and neglect of the agriculture sector by the\u00a0government are negatively affecting food production and food security […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14442,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/minaretproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14446"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/minaretproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/minaretproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minaretproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minaretproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/minaretproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minaretproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/minaretproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minaretproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minaretproject.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}