A closing ceremony took place at the University of Balamand to celebrate the successful closing of the project ‘’Recovering Livelihoods for Agricultural Value Chains in North Lebanon’’ under Local Development Programme for Urban Areas in North Lebanon (UDP-NL).The project aimed at recovering livelihood for agricultural value chains in North Lebanon and was co-funded by the European Union and Germany and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in partnership with UOB.
The event took place at the University of Balamand in the presence of the representatives of municipalities and unions of municipalities of Batroun, Koura and Zgharta, GIZ members as well as agricultural cooperatives.
The project supported of 510 trainees in olive, apple, and dairy farming. More than half of them were women and young farmers. Each trainee received a total of 12 training sessions, 6 technical sessions and 6 entrepreneurial sessions. At the end of the training period, 10% of the trainees were selected for direct coaching sessions, where they received close direct support from UOBs experts in improving their work.
In closing, Dr. Rodrigue El Balaa, Director of Agricultural Value Chain Development Center (AVCDC), shared: “Through this program we were able build partnerships with farmers of the three value chains based on knowledge transfer and technical support. Our aim is to keep creating sustainable programs and participate in the development of the agricultural sector as part of UOB’s mission of promoting the welfare of humanity and its highest values.”
During the ceremony, each trainee received a personal toolkit consisting of different agricultural tools that are used in Good Agricultural Practices (pruning and grafting) and Good Farming Practices (Hygiene and early disease detection), and each group of 20 persons received large equipment to benefit from. This included mechanical harvesters for olive farmers to optimise the production process, pesticide sprayers for pest control and brush cutters for weed control for apple farmers and artificial Insemination kits and a total of 600 semen straws for dairy farmers.