Lead:
Wheat-growing area in Lebanon contracted by 31,500 hectares between the 2022–2023 and 2024–2025 seasons, according to a peer-reviewed study published in npj Sustainable Agriculture. The research, led by Mariam Ibrahim and researchers from Lebanon's National Center for Remote Sensing and French institutions, documents a sharp retreat in cultivation tied directly to the country's financial collapse and military conflict. The decline underscores deepening food security vulnerabilities in a nation already dependent on imports.
Details:
The study titled "Wheat in Crisis: Fluctuations in Wheat Cultivation Areas in Lebanon between 2017 and 2025" maps the erosion of domestic grain production across a decade. According to Al-Akhbar, planted wheat area fell from 69,194 hectares in 2022–2023 to 37,642 hectares in 2024–2025, representing a 46 percent drop in just two seasons. The researchers attributed the collapse to compounded pressures: the Lebanese economic crisis—which has frozen bank assets, devalued the currency, and made agricultural inputs unaffordable—and ongoing military operations in border regions that have disrupted farming infrastructure and displaced rural populations.
The research team integrated satellite remote-sensing data with ground surveys to track cultivation patterns, establishing a baseline against which recent decline appears severe. Prior to the 2022 contraction, wheat cultivation had already faced volatility dating to 2017. The acceleration in recent years signals both structural economic failure and the immediate destabilizing effects of conflict on land use.
Lebanon has historically relied on wheat imports to meet domestic consumption. The new data shows that shrinking domestic production will intensify that dependency precisely when foreign exchange scarcity constrains import capacity. Agricultural economists and food security officials have not yet issued public statements on contingency measures or import protocols in response to the study.
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