Coll 54/2 'Middle East (Official) Committee: Working Party' [‎49r] (97/642)

of water even at the end of the long rainless summer* When the
rain ceases the rivers are fed by melting snows. There are
also believed to be considerable sources of sub-soil water*
The need for the maximum exploitation of the country’s
water resources for irrigation, domestic use and•hydro-electric
development is obvious* Certain projects already in hand,
a drainage scheme in the South Beqaa Valley and irrigation
schemes at Lake Yamouneh, and the Akkar Plain and at
Qasimiyeh near Tyre* The total area commanded by these
schemes is about 90,000 acres and it is estimated that a further
100,000 acres could be irrigated if all possible water supplies
were used.
The competing claims of irrigation, domestic water supplies
and hydro-electric power need careful balancing* Some of the
schemes already begun were unfortunately launched without
sufficient technical investigations.
9* Cadastral Survey
By the end of 1946 only 35$ of the Lebanon had been
covered by Cadastral Survey* Without such a survey many
improvements in farming methods, afforestjatl_on and irrigation
will be difficult.
10. Land Tenure
In general large land-owners are for the most part to be
found in the coastal plain and in the Beqaa Valley while most
of the land in the mountains is held by peasant proprietors*
The tenant holdings in the plains are generally large enough
to be worked economically but the Aame is not true of the
peasant holdings in the mountains, although income derived
from the tourist trade serves to improve the lot of many villages
in favourably placed areas. The small holder usually has
neither the means to improve his land, for example through the
use of fertilisers, nor the capital to purchase the equipment
and many are in the hands of money lenders. On the whole
however the familiar evils of Middle Eastern land tenure systems
appear to be less in evidence in the Lebanon than elsewhere*
11. Farming. Capital and Co-operatives
An Agricultural Co-operative Society has been in existence
for a number of years in the village of Abadiyah* Apart from
providing credit for its members the society offers other
facilities such as the marketing of produce, the provision
of fertilisers and agricultural equipment and instruction
as to their proper use*
This experiment has undoubtedly proved the value of
co-operative eflort and the merits of Governmental encouragement.
12. Crops
The climatic conditions of the Lebanon permit the
oultivatibn of a very large range of crops from the tropical
banana and sub—tropical olive, citrus and fig to the grape,
appie and pear of the temperate zone and the wheat and potato
of the colder areas. Annual average production of the country’s
main crops is as follows:—
/ 92,000 tons cereals