Head of Lebanese Farmers Association: Where is the National Agricultural Guarantee Fund?

​The head of the Lebanese Farmers Association, Antoine Houeik, expressed regret over "the situation in the agricultural sector, where farmers are suffering further losses and disasters amid a complete absence of any official care or protection."

​Houeik noted in a statement that "tens of thousands of dunams of people's livelihoods and life's harvest have been completely destroyed due to the wave of frost and ice that hit the country two days ago," asking: "Where is the Scientific Agricultural Research Institute, which is supposed to issue early warnings to farmers so they can take necessary preventive measures, such as spraying crops with water or lighting fires to raise temperatures and protect their seasons from damage?".

He also asked: "Where is the National Agricultural Guarantee Fund regarding disasters, whose establishment has been stalled since 2004 until now, to compensate farmers and help them withstand natural disasters befalling them?".

​Houeik considered that "the system of corrupt and criminal parties that has its hand on the agricultural sector and the research institute, whose primary goal has become destroying Lebanese agriculture and looting what remains of the resilience elements of this oppressed people."