At the request of the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), a joint FAO/WFP CFSAM visited the country from 15 to 28 July 2024 to estimate the 2024 crop production, identify factors that affected production, forecast staple food import requirements for the 2024/25 marketing year (July/June), analyse the domestic food market and assess the acute food security situation. The Mission identified measures to address some of the most pressing challenges in the agriculture sector with the aim of improving national food security and safety as well as strengthening the performance of the sector in line with the Lebanon National Agriculture Strategy (NAS) 2021–2025. The Mission held structured meetings with key institutions, in both the private and public sectors, to evaluate the impact of the crisis on the agriculture sector and the food security situation (see Annex 1 for the full list of institutions). The Mission was organized into six teams that visited all governorates, including seven districts in the main crop producing regions.a The districts were selected to ensure a representative sample of crops, livestock, agroclimatic conditions and livelihood zones. Prior to the Mission’s visit, national consultants were recruited to assess crop conditions in the main agricultural-producing areas (Bekaa Valley, Akkar and North), while subnational offices of the MoA compiled reports for South and Nabatieh governorates, where access was restricted due to the conflict in south of Lebanon.

Since 2019, the country has been grappling with a series of complex and interrelated shocks. The most significant and the first in the sequence was the financial collapse (ranked among the top 10 most severe economic crisis globally since 1900). The resulting sharp economic downturn was compounded by several subsequent shocks: the COVID-19 pandemic, the explosion in the Port of Beirut, the war in Ukraine and, more recently, the conflict in the south of the country. Despite these severe challenges, the agriculture sector has shown resilience. It was one of the few sectors that remained stable or posted growth, albeit modest, since the onset of the financial crisis. The agriculture sector also created jobs, helping to partly mitigate the effects of the economic shocks, particularly for poor households, who form a large part of the agricultural labour force. The domestic agrifood system is well integrated into global markets, with imports accounting for about half of the national food supply. This integration also helped lessen the impact of the economic crisis on the agriculture sector, with access to export markets helping