BEIRUT: Lebanon's Agriculture Ministry and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization have launched a project aimed at addressing fruit flies and supporting rural agriculture in Lebanon.
“The fruit fly is considered one of the dangerous pests that can infect hundreds of various vegetal families and most notably fruit products, which are produced on 50 percent of the acreage in Lebanon,” the director of the Agricultural Resources in the Agriculture Ministry, Mohammad Abu Zeid, said at the inauguration of the project.
Representing Minister Akram Chehayeb, Abu Zeid addressed a crowd that attended the launching day at the Radisson Hotel in Ain al-Mreisseh, where experts gave technical lectures about the “Monitoring and Management of Fruit Flies in Lebanon,” the title of the $400,000 project.
Zeid explained that Lebanon was highly exposed to the pest due to its reliance on fruit imports.
“Lebanon is still a major importer of food, with domestic production only meeting 20 percent of the local consumption,” the official said. “This commercial trade could increase the risks of cross-border vegetal diseases.”
The risk also increases significantly because Lebanon imports large quantities of mango, guava and tropical fruits from Egypt, Yemen and other African countries where the pest is widely spread.
According to Zeid, the fruit fly, if not discovered early, could ruin Lebanon’s fruit production.
The FAO-funded project will “comb” Lebanese agricultural areas to identify which locations infested by the insect and those areas that have high-risk factors for an infestation. Then, the ministry and local farmers will establish long-term strategies to counter the pest.
“The main beneficiaries from the project are farmers, rural communities, cooperatives, NGOs, exporters and the relevant governmental authorities,” Zeid underlined.
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