Lebanon's farm business is suffering

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 U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said in a report.

"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.

Many fields and pastures will also remain useless until unexploded bombs are cleared, the agency said.

After the 34-day war ended with a U.N.-brokered cease-fire, experts set out to clear large numbers of unexploded artillery shells, bombs and cluster bomblets fired by Israeli warplanes and artillery.

Still, the agency estimated that 25 percent of cultivated land in southern Lebanon remains inaccessible because of unexploded ordnance dropped during the conflict.

The agency said it had secured start-up funding to establish a recovery office in southern Lebanon to help farmers who had become heavily indebted after losing their harvest.

An additional $17 million is needed for other initiatives, such as providing seeds and irrigation equipment to stricken farmers, the agency said.

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