Social Stabilization through Comprehensive Agricultural Support for Refugee Host Communities in Lebanon

While hosting high ratio of refugees, the communities of Qabb Elias in Bekaa are classified as very vulnerable and urgent needs of support as livelihoods are threatened by demographic and economic changes. The competition over economic opportunities has recently been identified as one of the root causes for escalated social tension between Lebanese and displaced Syrians in Bekaa by UNDP conflict analysis, highlighting the need for job creation. At the same time, a massive influx of refugees and climate change has put enormous stress on water availability, agricultural livelihoods, and food security, urging the improvement of water resource management in the agricultural sector, which is the primary source of income in Qabb Elias.

To deliver the adequate technologies and practices and customize them for the local context, ICARDA will first conduct the field survey and consultation with local stakeholders. This process will take into account other ongoing support for the agriculture livelihood and business development in Qabb Elias and the surrounding villages to bring synergy among the projects. ICARDA, in collaboration with LARI and local community institutions, will select a number of farms, will undertake field visits and surveys across the valley (depending on the budget available) into which new irrigation and agricultural practices will be implemented. Consultations would include to the extent possible, women representatives from the local community. Options for improvement will be developed and interventions will be determined for each farm based on the prevailing conditions. Implementation of packages will be made with LARI and local cooperative and the municipality, in order to ensure the sustainability and scale-up of the project. A capacity development and training program will be designed for the farmer and technician groups expected to supervise the development from the municipality and the cooperatives. The program will use an on-the-job training approach during the implementation and formal training courses when needed. Training will include improved irrigation systems implementation and management, selecting and applying improved agricultural packages and disseminating technologies to other farmers. In the training session to farmers, ICARDA will consider the participation of Syrian refugee farmers by coordinating with UNHCR to identify potential beneficiaries from refugees (with the objective of increasing women beneficiaries to the extent possible).

The project aims and research activities are particularly oriented to convert traditional flood and other inefficient irrigation practices to more water-efficient irrigation systems, introduce farmers to drought-tolerant and disease-resistant new crops and varieties, seed production and distribution and improved cultivation practices. Improved irrigation systems, which have been developed and tested in partnership with national partners in over 40 countries and have proven their potential in the fields of thousands of smallholder farmers by ICARDA in areas with similar climate and environmental stressors will be provided. This will be facilitated by the previous experiences of ICARDA in this area and the important partnership with other Lebanese research institutes. They will provide training on the use and maintenance of the equipment to all participating farmers and NARS and will facilitate the diffusion of the new developed system and technologies. Therefore, it will be through training and demonstrations of efficiency that the proposed new systems will be disseminated and used within the local community, improving the agricultural livelihoods and water resources management restoring social stabilization within the community.