Strategies for Gender Equality and Effectiveness in the Field
For more information, contact Nasserie Carew
Women Leaders Championing Our Sector: Sobhieh Srour
By Polly Arnold from World
Vision
Sobhieh Srour fits a rare profile in Lebanon. Not only is she a woman farmer, she is also an organic farmer, of which there are only a few hundred in Lebanon.
Srour is a member of the first organic agriculture cooperative in Lebanon, BioCoop Lubnan, which is supported by the SABIL grant, administered by World Vision. The Sustainable Agri-Business Initiative for Lebanon (SABIL) is a USAID-funded project focused on the sustainability of the nation-wide co-op.
Formerly a tobacco farmer, Srour started practicing organic agriculture in 2003 with the aid of World Vision, and is currently growing vegetables and producing laurel soap with help from her 80-year-old mother. According to SABIL staff, s he is one of the most productive and committed farmers in BioCoop Lubnan.
SABIL supports farmers through the co-op by helping them become certified organic and then selling their produce under the Campagnia brand name at higher prices than conventional produce. This gives farmers a guaranteed income and customers a guaranteed pesticide-free product.
During the past three years, Srour has learned the overall concept of organic agriculture and received training from World Vision’s extension engineers on the major agricultural practices used in organic agriculture. She has also benefited from services provided by the co-op Bent Jbeil center, including provision of seedlings and pest control aid. Srour has also raised egg-laying hens and a goat, which she fed organic plants from her own plot and used to help maintain soil fertility in the plot.
Because her farm is in Bent Jbeil, an area in the south of Lebanon that was heavily attacked during the conflict in 2006, Srour’s farming has come to a stand-still for the moment. Many farmers in the area are in a similar situation. Srour was displaced from her village during the conflict, and separated from her mother for about one month. Her home was completely destroyed, her greenhouses and irrigation systems heavily damaged, and her animals all killed in the bombing. Srour cannot yet return to her farm because it is unsafe due to unexploded ordinance (UXO) and mines.
World Vision/SABIL is lobbying the United Nations Mine Action Coordination Center (UNMACC) to accelerate mine and UXO removal from the land of Srour and other BioCoop Lubnan farmers in southern Lebanon. SABIL engineers and staff are still in close contact with all the co-op farmers, and are supporting them to resume their agricultural activities as soon as their lands are mine-free. Until farmers are back on their land, World Vision is providing relief to them, including winter supplies such as fuel.
Although she is unable to farm presently, Srour insists on eventually resuming her organic agricultural practices, and she signed an enrollment contract with BioCoop Lubnan for this year. She even participated in the election of the co-op board members held in Bent Jbeil in February.
Because the conflict changed the nature of the economy in Lebanon, somewhat reducing the national demand for organic products, BioCoop Lubnan is now focusing on developing its international market. For more information on the co-op, please visit: www.biocooplubnan.com.
