In Lebanon, 300,000 hectares are cultivated, vegetable production amounts 85% of local needs

Caretaker Minister of Agriculture Abbas Al Hajj Hassan indicated that there are 300,000 hectares being cultivated in Lebanon, and "we can expand the cultivated areas to 700,000 hectares," he said. 

He added that Lebanon needs 800,000 tons of vegetables, and" we produce 700,000 tons." 

He affirmed that Lebanon imports and exports commodities, and before 2019, the economic situation was normal, and food security was not threatened. 

"In light of the crisis, we held many meetings to develop solutions, but we were standing on one fact: We are a country that imports wheat to make its own bread, which is sad and unfortunate." 

The Agriculture Minister's words came during the "2nd Arab Forum for Equality," where he affirmed that "we are helping with our partners in international organizations and donor agencies to draw up a strategy that can get us out of the crisis." 

During his participation in the forum, he said that the Lebanese Ministry of Agriculture had developed a strategy after the war in Ukraine based on four main points: activating cooperative work, agricultural extension, securing water, and expanding cultivated areas.  

Based on this strategy, he called for partnership in this region within the project launched by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, specifically Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in what is known as the Middle East Green Initiative. 

He indicated that he was talking about "very vast areas," expressing his readiness "from now on for Lebanon to be part of this project because it is a country that believes that the region has begun an extensive stage of openness, which establishes the return of us, as Arabs, to a leading role in this international system, and work to be a positive part in climate change and global warming." 

He stressed that "the Lebanese government is adopting a strategy of zeroing out problems and that the region also needs to eliminate problems." 

On the issue of the Lebanese government's sense of danger threatening food security, Al Hajj Hassan revealed that the Lebanese Ministry of Agriculture launched a plan to grow soft wheat suitable for bread production and that work is underway in the Ministry to expand foreign markets to Lebanese market products, and a large part of this plan has been achieved.