The National Agricultural Research Center "NARC" and the Business Development Center "BDC" concluded a memorandum of understanding to implement several training programs in agricultural fields, targeting farmers, agricultural Engineers and rural women.

The Director General of NARC, Dr. Nizar Haddad, said that this memorandum will empower youth by qualifying and training in agricultural fields in order to create job opportunities and find solutions to the challenges correlated with unemployment, in addition to empowering farmers, agricultural engineers and rural women to adopt good agricultural practices and introduce modern technologies that will develop and promote agricultural process and support small farmers, in addition to training them on entrepreneurship and business development.

Haddad highlighted that this memorandum will be a window for exchanging experiences between the two parties, especially in agriculture and entrepreneurship, particularly that NARC had the experience of launching the Agricultural Innovation and Entrepreneurship Incubator, which will constitute a networking portal for entrepreneurship and development to translate ideas into real pioneering projects on the ground. He added that in order to enhance the efforts and support obtained from the (AFD) to upgrade this incubator, further efforts are being exerted to mobilize additional resources through BDC.

Mr. Ghaleb Hijazi, the Director General of the BDC, expressed his pride signing this memorandum with NARC, indicating that the BDC was established in 2004, to work as an engine for the establishment of sustainable pioneering projects by providing specialized support services to entrepreneurs including training, qualification and creating job opportunities in partnership with national institutions, which NARC is considered one of them as an important partner in achievement and development. He added that increasing global and local interest in entrepreneurship and encouraging ambitious ideas and pioneering projects for young people would contribute to increasing the pace of knowledge-based economic growth that focuses on quality, sustainability and excellence in scientific research, to employ its outputs, and attract the necessary funding to achieve goals.

Engineer Ala'a Wahbe, Head of Climate Change Department at NARC, demonstrated the importance of this memorandum in qualifying and training entrepreneurs in many fields, especially those concerned with climate change and climate challenges facing the agricultural sector and employing creativity and innovation in this field.