he Agrobiodiversity Project in Lebanon participated in AgriTech 2000, the 6th international exhibition of agricultural technology, farming and irrigation in the Middle East, held 7-11 November 2000 at the Forum de Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon. The Project's participation consisted of an exhibition and a lecture by Dr Wafa Khoury, National Project Manager.
      His Excellency Dr Ali A. Abdallah, Lebanese Minister of Agriculture, visited the Project's exhibition stand and tasted food products made from wild fruit trees
      The stand featured posters highlighting the Project's objectives and strategies and information on target species and sites. Information leaflets in English and Arabic, prepared by the National and Regional Components of the Agrobiodiversity Project, were distributed to guests and visitors.
      Over 300 people involved in agriculture and organic farming, agro-food industry, tourism, restaurant business, non-government organizations, and research visited the exhibition. Many of them were students.
      Seed samples of landraces of wheat, barley, lentils and wild relatives of fruit tree and forage species were exhibited along with fruits of wild and cultivated species. Fruits of some under-utilized species such as Crataegus spp., Myrtus spp. and Zizyphus spp. provided by the National Project Components of Jordan, Lebanon and Syria were also displayed.
      Wild plum fruits, local products from Lebanese, Syrian and Jordanian villages such as Kishk, grilled whole meat, plum and Annab (Zizyphus) jams and pickles from local landraces were exhibited, and tasted by visitors.
      Because of the originality of this contribution, the AgriTech organizers would provide a free stand in future fairs amounting to a saving of about $5,000.
      The Project also set up a taste panel to enable visitors to evaluate six different plum jams. The jams, which were prepared by using a simple traditional recipe, contained only a little sugar to bring out their natural taste. Each jam originated from a single different wild plum tree from the Project site at Nabha, thus reflecting the differences in fruit size and color. The fruits from each tree were also displayed next to the jam jars to show visitors the large morphological differences in the fruits from different tree species.
      Visitors who joined the taste panel were given an evaluation sheet with the following rating scale: (1) Dislike extremely; (2) Dislike moderately; (3) Neither like nor dislike; (4) Like moderately; and (5) Like extremely. This scale was applied for jam appearance, color, odor, texture and taste. The visitors gave the jams an overall ranking. Twenty-five people evaluated the jams. The summarized results in the Table below show large differences in all characteristics. Samples 5, 3 and 6 were appreciated. Some of the visitors suggested that we add a little more sugar in the next preparations.
      The food industry people expressed their interest in pursuing with the Project team and local communities the evaluation of products from local varieties or wild fruit trees. The visitors congratulated the Lebanon Project team for the excellent stand and creative promotion of local products, wild fruit trees and under-utilized species.
      AgriTech 2000 also featured programmed seminars where invited key speakers, including Dr Wafa Khoury, National Project Manager, talked about new developments in agriculture and environment issues. Dr Khoury lectured on Conservation and sustainable use of agrobiodiversity in Lebanon to an audience of more than 120 people on 9 November 2000. The lecture described the Project's holistic strategy and the promotion of in situ conservation of dryland agrobiodiversity. The large number of questions asked during discussions reflected the audience's keen interest in agrobiodiversity conservation.

.