The Agricultural Movement in Lebanon
Filed at Ministry of Interior in Lebanon under the number: 8321 / wdb 2022
Agrimovement envisions a sustainable just future, where communities thrive through resilient social practices, equitable access to food, and empowered people.
Agrimovement strives to promote food sovereignty, advocates peoples’ right to food, environmental stewardship, and economic growth by fostering innovation, knowledge-sharing, and collaborative partnerships in socio-economic development
Agrimovement supports research pertaining to seed preservation, environmental conservation, and best practices in ecological farming.
Seed in a box is an initiative started as a small project to preserve the natural, heirloom, and organic seeds in two ways, by growing them and/or storing them. We work with farmers to preserve and exchange seeds, to reach a nationwide network of natural, heirloom organic seed exchange.
Our interventions over the years have shown that we can build a sustainable future by following nature’s time machines—seeds. Seeds carry generations of knowledge and adaptation, mitigating challenges and serving as incubators and growth accelerators.
- We planned to create agricultural service centers all over Lebanon and/or work with the actual ones. This was one of the main recommendations of SEAC 1 & SEAC 2 Conferences on Agriculture and Food Sovereignty in Lebanon www.seaction.org.
- Many programs and activities have taken place executing the recommendations of the two conferences.
- In this, we launched with other partners programs in Beddawi, Nahr El Bared, Northern Lebanon, Saida, and Southern Lebanon and Mount Lebanon. Where people (farmers and non-farmers) are being trained on sustainable agriculture practices and introduced to food sovereignty principles.
- Our aim is to encourage cooperative work, cooperative food production, creating new value chains in agriculture and food. Encouraging circular economy models.
- Living Seed Banks formed by farmers to farmers, are one solution that creates the cascading effect towards food sovereignty and communities independence. All that is needed is the will, then the resources will be gathered by themselves. Sustainability in seed production will lead to abundance in food production, which leads to food processing and preservation, nature preservation, and more nutritious crops lead to better human health.
- Additionally, we prioritize the integration of independent scientific research into our initiatives.
- Participatory research on women farmworkers in Lebanon, led by AgriMovement and SEAC, with a focus on Syrian refugee women, documenting working conditions, wage discrimination, OSH gaps, and everyday strategies of resistance in agricultural labour, and using these findings to inform advocacy, improve labor protections, develop practical support programs, and continue following up with affected communities to respond to their evolving struggles
- Localizing the understanding of food systems and food sovereignty from the perspective of small farmers in various districts. This process, piloted in Saida as a hub for South Lebanon's ecological recovery and expanded to Sour through the Seeds of Sour project and five other municipalities, is rooted in our belief in decentralization and locally led decision-making. It is reinforced through hands-on coaching, training, and practical demonstrations across six farming seasons to ensure agroecological practices are adopted, adapted, and sustained locally.
- Agroecology, Right to Food, and food-sovereignty training programs with farmers, youth, and women’s groups (including IDP communities). They cover composting, soil health, heirloom seed saving and propagation, integrated pest management, biosolution techniques, and "from seeds to seeds" supply chains. Training is delivered through participatory, farmer-to-farmer and peer-learning approaches, combining hands-on demonstrations, practical exercises, and knowledge exchange to strengthen local capacities, resilience, and community-led control over food systems.
- Farmer-school-training methodology: In 2025, AgriMovement and SEAC, in collaboration with the Sour Union of Municipalities DRR, the Islamic University in Beirut, and the SIYADA Network for food sovereignty, held their annual Agriculture in Context conference under the theme of "Justice and Sovereignty over Food and Environment". The discussions emphasized agroecological transition in Lebanon and its intersection with the recovery and reconstruction of South Lebanon following Israeli aggression. The conference was complemented by holding the first consolidated farmer-school-training, bringing together agroecological farmers, concerned academics, and young agriculture/environmental scholars and activists from various Lebanese universities. The school is planned to be replicated annually in various locations to emphasize particular local issues, in addition to the interplay between modern science, sustainable farming, and practical applications.
- Community seed and seedling initiatives include support to local seed work, community nurseries, and the promotion of indigenous and locally adapted varieties as a cornerstone of food and seed sovereignty.
- Advocacy and movement-building around the proposed draft legislation on Seeds, Seedlings, and Propagation Materials. AgriMovement and SEAC are contributing as part of larger civil society coalitions, issuing public statements and position papers that challenge restrictive seed legislation and promote sui generis frameworks that protect farmers’ rights, biodiversity, and food as a commons.
- Environmental and climate-policy advocacy and campaigning, led by IndyAct, including engagement in international climate and biodiversity processes, national environmental policy debates, and support to civil-society coalitions demanding just and effective environmental regulation.
- Design and facilitation of solidarity-based markets and short value chains, linking small-scale producers and cooperatives with communities, municipalities, and local institutions through fair-pricing principles, direct relationships, and non-exploitative market arrangements.
- Cross-sector partnerships and regional networking, including collaboration with farmer cooperatives, local NGOs, human-rights and environmental-justice initiatives, and regional food-sovereignty and environmental networks, to anchor local projects in broader struggles for social and environmental justice.