Page 158 - Lybia Flipbook

From the World to the Table: Feeding the Nation
Fly over Libya, and you will see a largely barren landscape, with occasional patches of green and most settlements near the coast. With only two percent of the country receiving enough rain for rainfed farming, Libya’s population remained historically small relative to its vast size. Along the coast, in the plains of Al-Jifarah to the west and in the green hills to the east, farmers were able to grow a range of cereals, fruits and vegetables. In the South, dates and fruits were cultivated in the oases that broke through the desert. Fishermen and herders supplemented diets, while extensive trade networks allowed communities to purchase what could not be produced locally.
The discovery of oil in the 1950s, followed by the discovery of vast fossil water aquifers deep in the desert, allowed the country to move beyond its traditional limitations. The additional income from the sale of oil created a boom in people’s demand for food, and food imports multiplied. Starting in the 1970s, when the government pursued a policy to attain greater self-suffi- ciency in food production, oil income was invested in grand infrastructure projects to expand irrigation and increase soil fertility. Vast green circles, producing grains such as wheat and barley, sprung up in the desert using water from deep underground aquifers. With a seemingly infinite supply of water, the government built its greatest engineering project – the Man-Made River – that tapped into deep-water aquifers to bring fresh water to farms and homes throughout the country. A fertilizer plant
was built to convert natural gas into a nitrogen-rich feedstock to enhance soil productivity. Canning factories and refrigeration stations were opened to facilitate the consumption and transport of fish. As an additional encouragement to the farming
services became unreliable. Power cuts made it difficult to operate equipment or to draw up water for irrigation. Due to the instability, the fertilizer plant stopped oper- ating, and limits on access to foreign currency made even the import of seeds challenging. Food production relied heavily on foreign workers, their exodus after
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community, the government offered subsidies, free equipment, and a ready buyer for domestic products. In addition, an abundant supply of foreign labor contributed to these efforts to make the country able to feed itself.
“I describe Libya as a mosaic of cultures as it serves as
a gateway through which most of the world’s cultures have passed, from the Middle East to the great Maghreb, and to Africa as well as to Northern Europe.” Ahmed, 43 years
2011 contributed to the closing of many farming operations and canning factories. Desert sands slowly began to reclaim lands that had once been turned green.
Lower domestic production,
supply chain disruptions and currency devaluation have con- tributed to higher costs of basic commodities and mounting nutri- tional insecurity. The South is at a particular disadvantage because
The meteoric rise in domestic
food production, however, was
short-lived. Coastal groundwater
soon became saline as its extraction
allowed the sea to penetrate deeper inland. While the fossil water from the aquifers continues to flow, these waters are finite and, if not properly managed, will even- tually become unusable. But by far, the main reason for the decline of food production has been conflict and the institutional fragmentation that came with it.
the distance from the Mediterranean ports adds signi- ficant transportation costs to the price of provisions. Cooking fuel, for example, can be five times more expen- sive in the South than in other parts of the country. By 2021, some 40 percent of Libyans were not able to access the variety of foods required for a healthy diet. Half a million people, including many migrants, do not even have access to the basics.13
Although momentum was maintained after 2011,
state-funded programs and infrastructure soon began to fade. The government stopped being the primary purchaser of domestic food products, and even basic