Shuaib, Saleh Discuss Joint Cooperation Issues

(ST) – Lebanese Minister of Agriculture Akram Shuaib and the Director-General of the Arab Center for the Studies of Arid Zones and Dry Lands (ACSAD) Dr. Rafiq Ali Saleh discussed the affairs of scientific and technical cooperation between the two sides and ways to strengthen and develop these relations.

 The Lebanese Minister of Agriculture, during the meeting held in Beirut recently, praised the important role played by ACSAD to achieve Arab agricultural sustainable development, noting the upgrading achieved by the center on the level of scientific performance practical application in recent years, and the high confidence gained by scientific and prestigious centers in all areas of its work.

 For his part, Dr. Saleh highly appreciated Lebanon’s support to ACSAD, stressing the readiness to provide everything that would contribute to the sustainable agricultural rise in Lebanon in particular, and in all the Arab countries in general.

Dr. Saleh confirmed ACSAD’s keenness to strengthen scientific and technical cooperation with the Lebanese Ministry of Agriculture to achieve optimum utilization of modern technologies, and the application of sound natural resource management, and the development of efficient Lebanese technical personnel for sustainable agricultural development in the Republic of Lebanon.

The two sides discussed the developments of a nursery project to produce fruit trees in Qamed al Louz  area in the western Bekaa district, which is implemented by the Arab Center (ACSAD), in cooperation with the Lebanese Ministry of Agriculture, and the development of the Lebanese local breeds of sheep, goats, wheat and barley.

 Sh. Kh.