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Agriculture in Lebanon is the third most important sector in the country after the tertiary and industrial sectors. It contributes nearly 7% to GDP and employs around 15% of the active population. Main crops include cereals (mainly wheat and barley), fruits and vegetables, olives, grapes, and tobacco, along with sheep and goat herding. Mineral resources are limited and are only exploited for domestic consumption.〔(http://www.fita.org/countries/lebanon.html ), Lebanon, Main branches of industry, January 2008. Retrieved on 2008-06-22.〕 Lebanon, which has a variety of agricultural lands, from the interior plateau of the Beqaa Valley to the narrow valleys leading downward to the sea, enables farmers to grow both European and tropical crops. Tobacco and figs are grown in the south, citrus fruits and bananas along the coast, olives in the north and around the Shouf Mountains, and fruits and vegetables in the Beqaa Valley. More exotic crops include avocados, grown near Byblos, and hashish (a major crop in the Beqaa Valley).〔(http://countrystudies.us/lebanon/71.htm ), ''U.S. Library of Congress'', Agriculture. Retrieved on 2008-06-22.〕 Lebanon's agriculture, which offers fertile land, landscaped terraces, and fresh and healthy produce, faces several challenges in recent years. Improper agricultural practices leading to soil erosion and impoverishment, depletion of underground water resources, water pollution and health impacts from inappropriate use of pesticides and fertilizers, and environmental pollution from haphazard dumping of slaughter waste and animal farms are from the main problems of this sector. Agriculture is also diminishing to rampant urbanization, such as in the coastal plains and in parts of the Beqaa Valley. The government's policies appear to be targeting the increase in the availability of water irrigation (especially in the South) and controlling the use of pesticides, with no or little investment or incentives for water- and soil-conserving irrigation techniques. The private sector is gradually taking advantage of new but small scale opportunities offered by organic farming and high-value agricultural produce.〔 〕 ==History== Agriculture in Lebanon dates back to Phoenician times with the first trading activities tacking place in the eastern Mediterranean. The wine making tradition, which has a 5,000 years of history in the region was a known skill for its ancient dwellers. The Phoenicians tended vineyards, made wine and exported a significant amount to neighboring countries such as Egypt, Greece and Assyria.〔(http://www.lebwine.com/ ), Wine of Lebanon. Retrieved on 2008-06-25.〕 Although the trading activity was active in that period, however agriculture was not their main source of wealth because most of the land was not arable; therefore, they focused on commerce and trading instead. They did, however, raise sheep and sell them and their wool. During the Arab rule, in the Middle ages, the country enjoyed an economic boom in which the Lebanese harbors of Tyre and Tripoli were busy with shipping of industrial and agricultural products. Lebanese products were sought after not only in Arab countries but also throughout the Mediterranean Basin. This period of economic growth was later oppressed with the beginning of the Ottoman rule and the high taxes imposed on the Lebanese production. In the first half of the 20th century, Lebanon had regained its past agricultural boom where almost one-fourth of its land had been cultivable (the highest proportion in the Arab world). After the 1950s and the prosperous decades that followed, agriculture faced a decline with the beginning of the Lebanese Civil War and especially after the Israeli invasion in the early 1980s. In the latter period, the government prepared plans to irrigate an additional 60,000 hectares, and by 1984 studies were under way on 6 major irrigation projects, all designed to be carried out as part of the 1982-91 reconstruction plan. However, with the Israeli invasion came a continuous diversion of water from rivers mainly located in the south. Even in the relative calm between 1978 and 1981, about 1,100 hectares of tobacco were destroyed, 300 hectares of agricultural land were abandoned because of land mines, and 51,000 olive trees and 70,000 fruit trees were destroyed, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. By the mid-1980s Lebanon had become one of the world's most prominent narcotics trafficking centers, with the prosperous phase that it witnessed (especially in the Beqaa valley). Before 1975 much of this trade was exported by air from small airstrips in the Beqaa Valley. After the valley came under Syrian control, the drug crop left the country by sea through Christian-controlled ports to Cyprus, overland to Syria or sometimes through Israel to Egypt.〔(http://countrystudies.us/lebanon/71.htm ), Crop Production. Retrieved on 2008-06-25.〕 In the early 1990s, the Lebanese government and the UNDP program launched an initiative to replace drug crops with legitimate alternatives. The UNDP estimated some $300 million was required for rural development of the Beqaa. Lebanon was removed from the U.S. government's list of major drug producing countries in 1997.〔(http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1672244,00.html ), A Comeback for Lebanon's Hashish, Nicholas Blanford. Retrieved on 2008-06-25.〕 Nowadays, the Lebanese government is setting new agricultural policies, providing help to the local production and giving several incentives in order to increase the quality and quantity of Lebanese production. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Agriculture in Lebanon」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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