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The example of a Lebanese farming system employing permaculture, eco-responsibility and community engagement to combat severe economic crisis

Lebanon

The example of a Lebanese farming system employing permaculture, eco-responsibility and community engagement to combat severe economic crisis
Period
2017 - 2024

In the midst of Lebanon's severe economic crisis, the Terres Gourmandes farming project was launched in 2021 to promote food security and sustainable income. Covering 3000 m², this practice employs permaculture techniques to grow vegetables, legumes, and fruit trees, alongside a rabbit farm. Despite challenges such as water scarcity, the farm has thrived, producing high-quality organic produce and compost. It has garnered local awards and inspired community engagement and training programmes. By focusing on eco-responsibility and efficient land use, Terres Gourmandes demonstrates a viable path to resilience and sustainability in crisis-hit regions.

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Identification needs
Since 2017, Lebanon has plunged headlong into an unprecedented economic crisis. The COVID pandemic, the explosion of the port of Beirut and the absence of a government have accentuated a chronic instability that has left over 70% of the population below the poverty line. For many villagers and/or housewives, the return to the plot of land to plant/produce canned goods has been a reflex. What's new is the enthusiasm (sometimes aided by financial aid from NGOs) of managers and employees from all sectors who have taken up cooking workshops, cultivation and agrotourism to supplement their increasingly difficult monthly income. The farming project (Terres Gourmandes), launched in 2021, is the result of an eco-responsible reflection to provide for food needs, but also to show that it was possible to earn enough to live decently. It consists of 3000 m2 of land with fruit trees, vegetables planted  and legumes using the permaculture method, and a rabbit farm. In four years, we've invested 16,000 USD to improve the soil, which was too poor to begin with, buy tools, build a 36-hen henhouse, and set up a rabbit slaughtering and cutting workshop.
Stakeholder change

 We chose to cultivate a family plot of land following Jean-Martin Fortier's method, which advocates bio-intensive agriculture. It has the advantage of being standardized yet flexible, accessible to a small team, but above all mechanized to a minimum, with a preference for hand tools. A minimum of water had to be ensured. There's a 120,000-liter collection tank, but with the dry period stretching from June to mid-September, we have to make choices in our crops. The rainwater collection capacity would have to be doubled to eliminate any water shortage factor. The other advantages of this method are that it teaches you to organize yourself so that the land is productive all the time, and that it allows rapid crop rotation while improving the soil with each rotation. 3 years into the project, the results are fairly positive. On the agricultural side, both farmers market and direct delivery customers are satisfied with the produce on offer. Particularly, the land is ready to produce organic legumes, rich in protein. In addition, the fact that we often look after our legumes directly means that we also remove grass by hand. In 2023 and 2024, Terres Gourmandes won an innovation award from Lebanon's biggest food fair.

Change triggered
The most important factor in the realization of this project is that it was driven by passion. A passion for the Earth, a passion for doing things well and, above all, a passion for leaving an eco-responsible footprint for those around us and for nature. If you add to all that a passion for passing on knowledge, it all adds up. It is also about taking the time to explain and convince people that moving towards healthier production is essential for our future. It's also important to build a community, so that everyone can participate in a collective project. The agricultural project has enabled us to produce our own compost (organic waste, carbon and animal waste), and to eliminate all types of insecticide except for the purins we use (comfrey, nettle, etc.), essential for the growth of bio legumes. For the social part, we've started a training program for people interested in getting started. With the seed library built up over these 3 years, we were able to select the plants best suited to our environment and began selling vegetable plants at the start of each season (200 plants in spring 2024, with a target of 1000 for 2025). This method is easily replicable. We still need to give young people the desire to return to the land, by guaranteeing them a decent income that will enable them to get on in life. Access to arable land is another obstacle. The nature of the land (often mountainous) and its location far from the urban center add to the difficulty of setting up on your own. Large landowners are reluctant to rent out their land cheaply. A form of agricultural cooperative could be envisaged.
Short description
At first, we analysed the soil to amend it at best with missing components. The choice of seeds at the outset was not easy, as our aim was to have enough to keep up with market demands and introduce new varieties that would create new demand. The main example goes for squash and beans. Water management in a country increasingly subject to long droughts (June-September) is paramount. Crops were chosen for their ability to withstand the heat better than others. Pending the construction of an additional collection well, we are allowed to use a maximum of 3 cubic meters per day. The use of fertilizers is facilitated by the presence of rabbits and chickens on the farm. We have acquired a composter with a capacity of 500 kilos produced every two months using only organic and carbonaceous waste collected on the farm. As a result, the soil is naturally enriched and the underground life, in particular the presence of earthworms, enables us to grow vegetables of excellent quality in a very short time. Two third of the production is sold on markets, while the remaining third is processed into preserves.

No Poverty
Good Health and Well-being