Agticulture in Zgharta Zawieh

General survey

Lebanon, with a total area of 10 400 km², is situated east of the Mediterranean Sea and stretches about 210 km along the coast and 50 km inland. It is bordered by Syria in the north and east and by Israel in the south. Administratively it is divided into eight Mouhafazats or provinces.

Topographically, Lebanon can be divided from west to east into four parallel parts:

• a flat, narrow coastal strip parallel to the sea (half of the Zgharta Zawieh caza area is situated in that part);

• the Lebanon Mountains chain, the highest crest of which is just over 3 000 metres (the other half of the caza is on the western slopes and borders the highest crest in western Lebanon mountains, Qornet al Sawda 3088 meters high);

• the Bekaa Valley at a height of around 900 metres;

• the Anti-Lebanon Mountains chain, which rises to 2 800 metres, in the east.

Lebanon is administratively divided into eight regions or Mouhafazats. Each Mouhafaza is further divided into smaller districts known as Cazas. The cultivable area is estimated at 360 000 ha, or 35 % of the total area but only 60% of this potential is used.

Cultivated Land

During the period 1992-94, the total cultivated area was estimated at 189 206 ha, of which 104 120 ha consisted of annual crops and 85 086 ha consisted of permanent crops, mainly fruit trees and olives. Today the total cultivated area is estimated to approximate 296,554 ha, of which about 60% is rainfed, about 39% is irrigated and less than 1% is under greenhouses (table 1). In addition, there are over 119,774 ha under forests (4 forest areas are located in Zgharta Zawieh) and 527,790 ha of pastures. The largest agricultural region is the Bekaa Valley which represents almost 38% of the total cultivated land, followed by North Lebanon with 33%.

According to the 1970 census there were 140 000 farm holdings with 63% having less than 2 ha of land, which means that agriculture is characterized by land fragmentation. However, there are indications of a decrease in the number of very small farms and in 1985 it was reported that about 46% of the farm holdings had less than 2 ha of land. Small farm holdings are a a characterization of the agricultural potential in Zgharta Zawieh area. Below is a comparative table (table 1) that shows cultivated areas (in hectares) in the 8 different mouhafaza and their cazas.

Table 1

The pattern of agricultural land use differs from one Mohafaza to another. There are almost no greenhouses in the Bekaa or Nabatiye. The largest share of Greenhouses is in Mount Lebanon and North Lebanon. Rainfed agriculture dominates irrigated agriculture in most of the Mouhafazats; this dominance is, however, marginal with the exception of Nabatiye. The pattern of agriculture and irrigation type is presented by Caza in Table 2. It is quite revealing that in many parts (Cazas) of Mount Lebanon, irrigated agriculture supersedes rainfed agriculture. This is not true in the rest of the Mouhafazats.