The sexagenarian farmer Abu Hussein from the village of Aaitaroun tells the National News Agency reporter: "I currently supervise a farm of 12 Dunams (around 3 Acres) and resort to the aid of a number of displaced Syrian families living in the neighborhood".
He explains: "Tobacco cultivation is exhausting and its working days are simply a loop in which the seasons interlap".
He continues, busy with pricking tobacco leaves with the help of his family members and some female Syrian workers: "I helped them with the process of cultivation because if labor and expenses are spent properly, the production profits would amount to the expenses".
He points out that "Syrian labor is temporary, especially during planting. It is a leveraging factor for production".
Tobacco cultivation in Bint Jbeil serves as a breadwinner for several families. It is considered one of the main agricultural crops next to olives and has accompanied the farmer for better or worse, before, during and after the Israeli invasion, in the absence of alternative crops.
Tobacco cultivation requires sixteen months of continuous work, starting with putting seeds in intensive care beds, then planting them in the right soil, then growing, picking, pricking, spreading out, sorting and equipping, up to the final phase when delivering the yield to the Régie Libanaise des Tabacs et Tombacs.
In her house in the village of Kounine, Hanan pricks the tobacco leaves that are laid down on a plastic table before her. This is the yield she reaped from growing an area of four Dunams (one acre) of land.
She explains: "Labor costs are very expensive compared to the production, but two years ago (…) we started resorting to displaced Syrian workers. We pay them half of what we used to pay the Lebanese per day, i.e. twenty thousand Lebanese pounds".
She adds: "During the phases of picking and pricking, we pay two thousand Lebanese pounds per string. And with the assistance of the displaced Syrians when needed, the result is at least better than that of before; especially in the implanting season".
Two years ago, Bahia migrated from Syria to Bint Jbeil. She knew nothing about tobacco cultivation. In this regard, she says: "In just a few days I learnt how to "plant" the land with the neighbors, then we began working with them as partners in production".
Bahia and members of her family now master all details of this cultivation, including planting, picking, pricking, drying and collecting, except for seed-planting in the nursery and growing the first implant.
She explains: "This phase is hard and needs accuracy and knowledge of the diseases that attack the nursery. Each disease has a name and a cure".
Tobacco cultivation, according to an agricultural guide at the Régie Libanaise des Tabacs et Tombacs, requires "a lot of expertise, evolution and follow-up, due to the diseases that attack implants and seedlings".
He says: "The farmer must be informed of this and he should know the minimum necessary requirements in terms of treatment expertise and daily surveillance, as well as caring for sterilizing the soil and spraying pesticides, plowing the land, sowing seeds taken from plants that are not affected by disease and avoiding intensive farming". The participation of the displaced Syrians is limited to certain phases.
As for the vice president of the General Trade Union, head of the Union of Tobacco Growers in Lebanon, Mr. Hassan Fakih, he emphasizes that "tobacco cultivation is an inherited family cultivation practice and enjoys mechanisms related to expertise and accuracy in order to avoid the production of an unhealthy crop".
Accordingly, he explains that "the Syrian labor is often limited to the planting season."