UN: Lebanon's farming endured $280 million damage

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Lebanon's agriculture sector suffered around $280 million (€213 million) in direct and indirect damage during this summer's conflict between Israel and Hizbullah, a UN food agency said Monday. While some farms, livestock herds, fisheries and forests were directly hit by the bombing of southern Lebanon, most of the economic losses were caused by lack of access to fields during the peak harvest time for some crops, the Rome-based UN Food and Agriculture Organization said in a report assessing the damage to the Middle Eastern country. "Much of this year's harvest perished on the ground, as bombing forced farmers to abandon their lands, and transport to market became impossible," the FAO said in a statement on the report. Many fields and pastures will also remain useless until unexploded bombs are cleared, the agency said.