Wamhiba

Lebanon imports roughly 80% of its food. When the currency lost most of its value, imported food and imported farming inputs went out of reach in the same month.

Agriculture has employed between a fifth and a quarter of the country's workers while producing about 5% of its economic output. That imbalance is why the sector fails first and recovers last, and why the poorest workers in the poorest districts are the ones it takes down with it. Farmers who could not buy seed, fuel or fertiliser cultivated less land, and less land cultivated meant less food at a higher price.

Produce goes to families facing food insecurity. A portion of each harvest is sold, and that income buys the seedlings and supplies for the following cycle.

The point of that structure is that the greenhouse is not a permanent line item on a donor's budget. A gift builds the greenhouse once; the harvest keeps it planted. Local production also does something a food parcel cannot: it lowers what a household spends on food, and it puts the supply inside the country rather than at the end of an import chain that has already failed twice.