Presently, Lebanon is still trying to recover from the aftermath of the war in 2023 and 2024, while some parts of the territory continue to be regularly bombed. In the South, over 40,000 housing units have been wiped out in 37 devastated southern Lebanese villages, thousands of trees have been burned and uprooted, and the soil has been contaminated by heavy metals and white phosphorus, a chemical that reduces fertility and increases soil acidity, leaving lasting scars on agricultural land, threatening future harvests, and contaminating the food we eat, leading to serious health issues.

Lebanon’s agricultural sector is mostly conventional and relies heavily on imported biocides and fertilizers. Inflation has increased the cost of these synthetic chemicals by at least tenfold. Other costs, such as labor, seeds, transportation, and machinery maintenance, have also risen sharply. All these factors have exacerbated an already deteriorating economic situation for farmers and their families across the country.

Today, the majority of farmers in Lebanon are considered “small farmers.” Small-scale farming is considered more of a social than an economic form of agriculture. These practices typically take the form of ‘family farms,’ where individual families own and operate the land. Small-scale family farms form the foundation of rural Lebanese peasant life, which in many ways carries on Lebanese cultural identity, heritage, and values.

Despite the major importance of these farms’ work for our collective survival, smallholder farmers are among the most underprivileged in the country. In the northern governorate, for example, one out of four farmers lives below the poverty line, and many seasonal agricultural workers are overworked, spending long hours in the fields with little compensation.