Lebanon: People resort to agriculture to prepare for what's to come (gardening 101)

Analysis by Michael Maalouf, Staff Writer

May 19th, 2020

Since the world is facing a complete lockdown, many countries are starting to face severe consequences. As for many around the world, staying at home isn't a simple thing as their right for daily work is essential to provide for themselves and their families. Lebanon is facing this lockdown while having to deal with an economic crisis like no other, which means that life in this country would change drastically in the coming weeks.

As people can't withdraw their own money anymore, arguably due to an ongoing Ponzi-scheme, political parties continue to busy themselves with fighting each other all while the country is drowning. Hyperinflation being part of the Lebanese people's daily life, and a complete lockdown of the country are amongst the many dilemmas of the Lebanese. All of these comes to complete the formula of collapse as options have become very limited, and people have to face the reality that they have indeed become ‘poor’ or ‘poorer’. However, it isn't the first time Lebanon faces significant challenges where the people had to overcome great obstacles.

Whenever the country starts to witness a downturn, Lebanese people rush to the markets to stock up and do whatever is necessary to prepare for the worse, which led them to become prepping experts. The Great Famine of 1915-1918, The Lebanese Civil War, July War, and other events have given the people immunity against whatever they might face. Since the beginning of the Lebanese uprisings the economic crisis became more apparent. As protests took over the country the banks took the opportunity to close and hide their failures blaming the closure on the protests. The country has suffered from years of corruption, debt traps, and failing economic policies, all of which busted in 2020. To eventually realize the largest robbery in the history of the world where banks stopped giving people their own money, the Central bank governor not being transparent, and the government facing the reality of its massive failures. As time is passing, the economic recession is becoming more apparent, especially since prices have begun to increase drastically.

As the financial situation started to deteriorate, many took a step further and headed to agriculture shops to get seeds, tools, fertilizers, and whatever is needed to plant their gardens. In front of agriculture shops, people are standing in lines to get whatever they need to start a garden or to fix the one they already have. Many are moving to their villages to plant their gardens. As the city life has become hectic as people are being trapped at home and have been facing stressful times. Moving to the village gives the space for people to boost their immunity as the active lifestyle through working in the land and being able to walk around would decrease stress, which is highly prevalent in Lebanon due to many reasons. It's essential to reduce stress as it would disrupt people's immunity, which is highly needed to fight COVID-19. Also, gardening would make people more active and have access to organic food, which promotes a healthy lifestyle.

At right Khaled 13 years old. At left his brother Ibrahim 15 years old, picking cucumbers harvest, day laborers, child labour, syrian refugees, Arsal, Bekaa Valley, Lebanon (Lucas Vallecillos / VWPics via AP Images)

The drive towards gardening, has been considered as a wakeup call on the necessity of local farming. A pheoneomena that is becoming a necessity as Lebanon is moving towards a sustainable economy to withstand the crisis. In an exclusive conversation with Nibal Homsi, an Agriculture engineer who has been working on raising awareness on agriculture and its importance within his community mentioned the importance of farming, Homsi described this as a gold mine of the future as it's a pressing issue in today's world. As many are new to this and have never worked on a piece of land, we asked Nibal to give us tips that those of novice or full knowledge in farming would benefit from. 

The tips are the following:

-Buy seeds and plant them on your own in pot sheets before planting them as it is less expensive from buying as grown plants and would provide you with many more plants for a lower price.

-It's essential to plan your field and organize it according to your space and try to improve the variety in it, and most importantly, take into consideration the land's altitude and the nature of its soil.

-Permaculture is a concept people should look into when planning their plants' location as it is a great organic alternative to pesticides as it helps plants protect each other from insects.

-Crop rotation, a technique in which you plant different crops sequentially on the same plot of land to combat weed pressure, improve the soil's nutrition, and boost the soil's health. It is highly recommended to get better results.

-The three main steps of planting a garden are the following: 

The first step removing the weed from the yard (Using chemicals to kill the weed is not encouraged as it would kill the plants)

The second step is plowing the land and cleaning it from the weed however, mixing it with them is good as it nourishes the soil. 

The third and final step is planting the seeds and the already gown plants.

It is highly encouraged for those who didn't start and have a plot of land to research on the topic more and begin farming their land. As it has many benefits, especially in the current situation as things might get worse as we are still early in this major economic crisis that the country is facing and from what speculations say it would be like no other. We must be prepared for all scenarios and overcome these massive obstacles like our ancestors. As we have solutions in our hands to fight this, it would be better as food security is essential in all cases as it helps in promoting a healthier lifestyle and improves the economy.