BEIRUT: The Agriculture Association in Lebanon held a protest in the Bekaa Sunday against lack of government support, briefly blocking the Riyaq-Baalbek road near Majdalyoun.
The farmers demanded that the Investment Development Authority of Lebanon work harder to support and promote the agricultural sector, the National News Agency reported.
IDAL runs Export Plus, an export subsidy program which is currently being phased out. Agriculture Minister Hussein Hajj Hasan recently passed an emergency law to extend the program. Land exports from Lebanon have recently been disrupted due to unrest in Syria.
The head of the union of poultry breeders, Ali Hajj Hasan, said further steps could be taken if officials did not pay attention to farmers’ demands.
“When the new government was formed, we were optimistic that things will be resolved; but it turns out that certain decisions were like a death sentence for farmers … if things remain as is we will follow the same pattern of escalation on Damascus road and then in Beirut,” the NNA reported him as saying.
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