Agricultural Cooperatives and Our Apple Seasons

The agricultural engineer Fouad Najjar speaks about:

In recent years a wave of agricultural awareness has been sweeping the Arab countries, called forth by the nature of these lands and by the buried bounties of the earth, which had to be brought out by means of modern science. Among the causes of this agricultural awareness, too, are need, and then these successive crises.

In fact, the Arab countries possess three elements abundant in benefit and yield once they are harnessed and invested in agriculture: I mean the plentiful flowing waters, the fertile, generous soil, and the bright, clear sun — a combination rarely found together in any other country. If the farmer in these lands is enabled to work energetically on modern scientific foundations, these three elements will be allowed to interact, and our lands will burst forth with the finest results...

The agricultural engineer Fouad Najjar is in the vanguard of those who kindled the fire of agricultural awareness in the Arab countries and worked to promote it in theory and in practice, sacrificing much for the sake of a comprehensive agricultural renaissance that would raise the standard of agricultural life and save the Arab countryside — particularly in Lebanon — from the migration of its sons to the cities in pursuit of their livelihood, far removed from the service of the land.

Engineer Fouad Najjar graduated from the National Higher School of Agriculture at Montpellier, France, in 1932. He is president of the Agricultural Cooperative Association in Abadiyeh, vice-president of the Syndicate of Apple Orchard Owners, secretary of the Friends of the Tree Association, and the holder of other interests besides, all directed toward an ideal agricultural goal.

The Lebanese press takes a particular interest in the agricultural cooperative exhibitions which Mr. Najjar has been accustomed to holding, and supervising the organization of, in his village of Abadiyeh nearly every summer since 1941.

He has kindly consented here to answer these questions:

Q — How far back does the history of the agricultural cooperative movement in Lebanon go?

A — The agricultural cooperative movement is of recent date in Lebanon; its appearance dates back to the year 1937.

Q — Who was the first to think of founding an agricultural cooperative in Lebanon?

A — It was Mr. Halim Najjar, former director of the Institute of Rural Life at the American University of Beirut, former director of Lebanese agriculture, and at present an agricultural expert at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. He founded the first agricultural cooperative association in Lebanon in his town of Abadiyeh, in the province of Mount Lebanon, in 1937.

Q — Are there agricultural cooperatives in the Arab countries on the model of ours?

A — Yes. Egypt comes foremost among the Arab countries in concern for the cooperative movement; there, cooperative work has reached a high degree of specialization and advancement. Jordan follows Egypt. As for Syria and Iraq, the readiness exists to spread the cooperative movement in the various fields of economic and social activity.

Q — I understand, Mr. Fouad, that you attach great importance to strengthening the agricultural cooperative movement. Can you summarize its benefits?

A — The benefits of cooperation are very many indeed, but to put it briefly: cooperation raises the farmers' level economically and socially, directs them toward the public interest, trains them in democratic systems, teaches them love of upholding regulations and laws, makes them respect the rights of others, instills in them the spirit of ambition, strengthens in them the spirit of sacrifice, unites their efforts, and creates among them the mutual trust upon which the foundation of their work rests. Alongside all this, cooperation combats

individualism in work and makes the farmers share in the economic benefits. In my view, nothing gathers people together and unites them like their sharing in such benefits. From all this we see that the spread of the cooperative movement in the Arab countries is a necessity for attaining the benefits I have mentioned.

Q — Were the farmers satisfied with the apple season this year?

A — As regards the quality of the crop, yes; as regards prices, no. And in my view this situation will continue for a long time unless a strong body takes this precious harvest in hand and concerns itself with marketing it in the many markets that need it. Lebanon has expended a great effort in the field of production, and its harvest has come in abundant and sound. It remains for it to work energetically in the field of marketing, so as to rid itself of this situation to which it is exposed at the gathering of its crop every year.

Q — It is noticeable that the price of apples this year is lower than it was last year. Does this mean that their price in winter, too, will not reach what it was last winter?

A — Theoretically, yes. Practically, however, one cannot predict what prices will be during the winter season, because that is tied to the law of supply and demand. It is enough for the demand for Lebanese apples to strengthen — in execution of the trade agreements concluded between Lebanon and certain foreign countries — or for the Lebanese merchants to bestir themselves to find new markets for apples, for us to see apple prices leap to an unexpectedly high level; especially since Lebanese apples have not yet reached their peak, a sudden rise in prices is therefore to be expected.

Q — Is it possible, Mr. Fouad, to give an idea of how much Lebanon has exported this year and how it was distributed?

A — If we take this year's crop, we find that most of it is still stored in the cold-storage depots in Lebanon, and only small quantities of it have been exported so far. This is natural where apples are concerned, because the export movement becomes active from now onward.

As for last year's crop, which reached approximately a million crates, close to 700,000 crates of it were exported, roughly half of them to Egypt; the remainder — that is, close to 350,000 crates — was exported to the rest of the Arab countries, which are, in order of the quantities exported to them: Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Syria.

Q — What is the proportion of the apples Lebanon consumes to those exported abroad?

A — In its present state of production, which slightly exceeds a million crates, Lebanon consumes roughly a third of what it produces. The consumption of apples in Lebanon is now confined to the well-to-do class and the wealthy middle class of its inhabitants; as for the middle and poor classes, they cannot now think of consuming apples, their means being too narrow in relation to apple prices in the natural season for their consumption — that is, in winter. I believe that Lebanon could consume the greater part of its present production — the million crates, approximately — if apple prices were within the reach of all classes of its population.

Q — Do Lebanese apples have qualities that make them superior to the apples of other countries?

A — Without doubt Lebanese apples have qualities bestowed upon them by Lebanon's unique nature. The fertile soil, the clear climate, the bright, gentle sun, the air of moderate humidity, and the snows that clothe the mountains — all these have made the apple trees grow in the environment suited to them in every respect, so that their fruits have come forth fragrant in flavor, abundantly sweet, rich in vitamins, harmonious in composition, beautiful in shape, and splendid in color — which has opened respectable markets before them without any prior advertising.

Q — Is there fruitful cooperation between the Ministry of Agriculture and the agricultural organizations?

A — Cooperation stands at its fullest these days between the Ministry of Agriculture in Lebanon

and all the agricultural organizations, as a result of the Ministry's firm belief that for work to yield its excellent results, it must be carried out in cooperation between the Ministry and the farmers whom the matter concerns. On this basis the cooperative movement in Lebanon has grown active and its spread has widened; on this basis, too, the Silk Office was established, to be followed by other offices, the most important of them the Apple Office and the Citrus Office, in which the farmers concerned and the representatives of the competent authority will take part, to do whatever redounds to the good of the public interest.

Q — Is there a unified governmental effort among the Arab countries to strengthen agriculture and to eliminate its pests?

A — There is no doubt that the economic conferences held from time to time in the Arab countries aim at strengthening agricultural production by facilitating its exchange among the Arab countries; accordingly we find that most Arab agricultural produce moves from one Arab country to another exempt from customs duties, and in this lies no small encouragement and reinforcement of Arab agricultural production. There is no doubt, either, that this reinforcement will grow ever firmer with time, the more the Arabs feel the vital importance of their close economic cooperation. As for the cooperation of the Arab countries to eliminate agricultural pests, I can say that these countries' cooperation in combating the locust — that deadly pest which constitutes a common danger to all our crops — is an important proof of the Arabs' sense of the necessity of cooperating in this field as well, for the good of all.