Important Announcement from the Ministry to Wheat Farmer

Tue 04 May 2010

General Directorate Of Cereals And Sugar beets

The Ministry of Economy and Trade issued the following memorandum:

The General Directorate of Cereals and Sugar beets- Ministry of Economy and Trade informs the Lebanese wheat farmers who wish to plant wheat and benefit from the subsidy policy to comply with the following instructions:

1- Submitting an application for wheat subsidy for the crop year starting May 3, 2010 until May 20, 2010 on a special application form distributed for free by the administration. The following documents should be attached:

A - New personal and family identification transcripts issued by the Ministry of Interior: Date of issue should not go back to more than 3 months.

B - A general real estate testimony for the planted land: Date of issue should not go back to more than 3 months.

C- A statement showing the area of real estates that are not mentioned in the above real estate testimony.

D - Cognizance and News document for the non surveyed land (not mentioned In B and C) with a map, for the real estates showing borders and areas. The document should be certified by the municipality and in case of absence, by the mayor (Moukhtar).

E- An agricultural lease contract for applicants who plant in lands of others ownerships.

F- The above lease contract should be organized either by:

a. A Public Notary: For real estates with areas exceeding 75 Dounoms or in case a farmer rents several real estates with a total area exceeding 75 dounoms owned by one proprietor.

b. Or by a municipality president or mayor (Moukhtar) in villages without a municipality for areas less than 75 Dounoms.

G - Respect of the agricultural cycle for at least one year in the future planting years, if decided.

1- The president of the municipality or the Moukhtar should mention clearly that the concerned parties have put their signatures in his presence after showing their identity cards or instead: his personal knowledge of the parties concerned is sufficient.

A 1000 L.P stamp is needed for each signature, in addition to a stamp value equal to 3 per thousand of the value of the lease contract. In case of absence of the monetary value of the lease contract, a 5000 L.P. stamp is used.

2- Applications are submitted during official hours at the following locations:

- Department of Economy and Trade in Zahlé for the Bekaa District.

- Department of Economy and Trade in Nabatieh for the South and Nabatieh Districts.

- Department of Economy and Trade in Tripoli for the North District.

3- Application to be submitted directly by the applicant without any other intermediary.

4 - Exceptionally for this year, applications may be submitted before being completed and before fully meeting the required conditions; however, the wheat will not be accepted later, unless the application has been fully completed.

5- Indivisibility of the application : submission of more than one application, even with names of persons who are still in the custody of the applicant, is not permitted.

6- Importance of submission of the application within the time interval mentioned above (has not been extended at all) in order to avoid the risk of refusing the application, and so that the administration can do the necessary survey on time.

7- Farmers who may benefit from this subsidy are those whose applications have been previously accepted by the administration and by the accountancy court. Consequently no person may benefit from this subsidy if his application was not submitted during the specified period or if he had made any changes of information, after the tolerance period.

8- Engineers and surveyors will survey lands on site to be sure that the planted wheat is really that of the real estate mentioned in the application by a comparison with the survey maps. Consequently no budget will be reserved and no payment will be made except for real estates indicated in the application of farmers whose lands have been previously surveyed.

9- Persons will be pursued for the crime of fraud and sent to the General Attorney Office in case of giving false information or lies as proved by the survey operation, especially for real estates that have not been planted with wheat, and that will be done in accordance with the current rules

Ministry Of Economy and Trade

H.E Mohammad Al Safadi