Pagina 5
@iamb community Newsletter Homepage
Issue 1 March-April 2011
“ Special News Country Focus ”
For his commitment for Lebanon’s progress in agriculture, Cosimo Lacirignola, Director of the CIHEAM-Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari (CIHEAM-MAIB), was honoured Commander of the National Order of the Cedar
The President of the Republic of Lebanon*, H.E. General Michel Sleiman, conferred the honour of Commander of the National Order of the Cedar to Dr. Cosimo Lacirignola on Friday 21 January in Lebanon. Over the years, in addition to post-graduate education/training programmes, the CIHEAM-MAIB has implemented in Lebanon several networking and research projects on Rural Development in the Bekaa Valley (region of Baalbeck-Hermel) and on the Production and Supply of certified plant material. MAIB has also created measures of support to rural areas and communities (TerCom) as well as the National Observatory for Women in Agriculture (NOWARA) and the social and economic support for olive producers’ families in marginal regions (Oil Lebanon). Recently, in June 2010, MAIB also signed in Bari a Memorandum of Understanding with the Lebanese Ministry of Agriculture , represented by the Minister Hussein Hajj Hassan, with the aim of developing activities in support of the Lebanese agriculture, so as to further strengthen the existing relations of cooperation between Lebanon and CIHEAM-MAIB. In fact, with the signing of the MOU, the Lebanese ministry and MAIB are committed to promoting cooperation activities in strategic agricultural sectors to improve quality production, to transfer knowhow on appropriate and advanced techniques and to strengthen institutions' activities and the sustainable use of natural resources.
*: Lebanon has been CIHEAM member since 1992