World Bank sustainable agriculture project coming

SALMA will support small farmers' activity

The World Bank is preparing a new agricultural project, Sustainable Agriculture Livelihoods in Marginal Areas (SALMA).

The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development will finance the project through a $20 million loan over five years. The Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) will contribute $2 million to the project’s implementation. The project is expected to be officially approved in early 2014.

The proposed project’s objective is to expand access of small farmers to supplementary irrigation as well as increase protection of agricultural lands from soil erosion in targeted remote hilly areas.

The sectors that will benefit from this project are crops (30 percent of funding), irrigation and drainage (30 percent), forestry (30 percent), and fishing (ten percent). The project will work on water resource management, rural services and infrastructure, social inclusion, and climate change.

The project will establish systems to allow storing water from seasonal springs for supplementary irrigation by small farmers. It will involve constructing agricultural roads to facilitate access by farmers to their remote lands. It will also help reduce production and marketing costs and encourage farmers to rehabilitate abandoned agricultural lands.

SALMA will also offer technical assistance and capacity enhancement to the MoA.

The project's geographical coverage would include Akkar-Danniyeh in North Lebanon, North Baalbek and Hermel in North Bekaa, and South Litani below Lake Karaoun in South Lebanon. Other geographic areas would also be considered to maintain inter-regional balance.