Strengthening the Resilience of Smallholder farmers, Micro and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and Local Communities in Lebanon
Context
Lebanon is facing a severe economic, financial and monetary crisis, and rising poverty levels, exacerbated by the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic as well as the explosion in Beirut’s port in August 2020. Since 2020, Lebanon is a partner country with which the BMZ is working to realise long-term shared development goals, aiming to contribute towards stabilization and conflict prevention and also towards its economic development.
Due to the poor economic opportunities, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) require support to strengthen their business and resilience. The Lebanese farming sector is suffering under limited modernization and adaptation technology, insufficient extension and research services, as well as declining soil quality, inflation, cost and availability of farming resources.
Project description
The GIZ project “Strengthening the Resilience of Smallholder farmers, Micro and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and Local Communities” is established in context of the BMZ Strategy on Transitional Development Assistance and particularly contributes to the fields of action ‘Food and nutrition security’ and ‘Peaceful and inclusive communities’. AMBERO Consulting, together with its consortium partner ICRA/NATAGRI, is responsible for field of action 1 of the transitional development assistance measure: strengthening the agricultural sector.
The objective of this project is to strengthen the socio-economic resilience of small-scale farmers in the Bekaa and Mount Lebanon regions. Target groups also include agricultural associations and cooperatives, and vulnerable MSMEs in agriculture-related downstream value chains that are unable to maintain or adapt their production in light of the current market conditions.
The intended output of the project is “to utilize good agricultural practices as a way of supporting selected agricultural associations in adapting their production systems to market conditions that have changed due to the crisis”. Smallholder farmers are encouraged to loosely group themselves through start-up financing, accompanied by capacity development. By forming jointly organized groups, increased cultivation areas and higher numbers of livestock are enabled, allowing increased production adjusted to the target markets.
Services
The consortium of AMBERO Consulting and ICRA / NATAGRI is responsible to ensure that selected agricultural associations adapt their production systems to market conditions that have changed as a result of crisis.
The following services are provided:
- Updating the analyses of the value chains for identifying products and developing incentive systems that encourage good agricultural practices.
- Identification of good agricultural practices and preparation of models for promoting resilience.
- Identification of producer associations, cooperatives and opportunities for vertical cooperation (iDPP/contract farming communities) with the food industry.
- Development of the skills of smallholder farmers and development of the capacity of associations by means of advice, training with start-up financing for operating equipment and inputs linked to requirements for good agricultural practices (farmer business schools), technical and organizational advice for technical development, quality assurance
- Developing and implementing pilot projects for innovations as well as local, regional and international marketing.
Over the course of the project, four rounds of data collection will ensure monitoring and verification of targets. The measures support gender-balanced agricultural MSMEs in increasing their competitiveness, income stability and employment opportunities. An increased local agricultural production in turn will contribute to improved food security.
Sustainable Development Goals
This project acts on implementing the following Sustainable Development Goals:
