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Results of Field Trials on Conservation Agriculture in Lebanon

Roula Bachour

Lebanon has a Mediterranean climate with 6 months of rain and 6 months of dry weather. In 2015/16, global Conservation Agriculture (CA) area covered some 180 M ha (12.5% of global cropland area) but CA adoption in Lebanon has been at a much lower rate than this, some 1,200 ha (less than 1% of total cropland). To promote CA in Lebanon, a series of field trials were started at the Agricultural Research and Education Center (AREC), Lebanese Agricultural Research Institution (LARI) and in farmers’ lands, in 2008 and continued several subsequent years with GIZ funding. The field experiments were conducted on rainfed wheat, barley and barley-vetch mixture, alfalfa, irrigated corn, and on olive, apple orchards and vineyards. In Lebanon, similarly to the results in other countries, CA led to the reduction in the cost of fuel, labor, and machinery required for land preparation (total production cost of wheat in conventional production is $1130/ha compared to $900/ha in no-till). Also, it led to an increase in crop yield after 3-4 years of vetch and barley/vetch mixtures by about 10 %. When discussing with farmers why not adopt CA at a faster and larger scale, it was apparent that soil and water conservation and regeneration of soil health were not the farmers’ main concern, but rather the economic savings and higher returns. The lack of knowledge about CA practices and systems as well as absence of affordable CA seeders are discouraging farmers from giving up plowing and initiate the process of transformation to establish CA systems. The potential of benefits that farmers may be able to achieve through the CA systems will encourage more farmers to adopt these CA practices and systems in the future. The lower cost of production and higher rate of return to investment are the main motivating factors.