Drought turns wheat fields in northeastern Syria into pastures for sheep

The wheat crop in a number of areas in northeastern Syria turns into fodder for sheep, after the drought made farmers lose hopes of reaping a bumper harvest this year.

In return for symbolic prices, farmers in northeastern Syria sell their produce to shepherds, which leads to significant losses in the crop, which is a pillar of the economy, a major source of income and an important economic safety net for poor families in the northeast of the country.

One of the farmers told AFP that he did not harvest the wheat crop, "even to secure our bread." He adds: "For the second year in a row, we face drought.

He recalls previous years when "queues of trucks transported bags of wheat from his land nonstop to the grain silos."

In an area that relies mostly on rain-fed agriculture and rainfall, he says that he planted two hundred acres of wheat, and instead of reaping abundant crops, the sheep ended up devouring his crop.

The agency says that the scene of sheep, whose wheat fields have turned into pastures, is repeated in the region, which was considered before the outbreak of the crisis in the country in 2011, a major source of the country's need for wheat, and is today the most affected by drought and low levels of rain.

Another farmer told the agency how he found himself "compelled to sell a crop of 157 dunums to the shepherds, for 15,000 pounds (about $4) per dunam, while the cost of cultivating a dunam exceeded twenty thousand.

Syria was a self-sufficient country in wheat, with an annual production of more than 4 million tons annually, but with the expansion of the battlefield and the multiplicity of conflicting parties, production collapsed to record levels, and the country was forced to import.

According to a report published by the International Organization (IMMAP) specialized in data management last April, the decline in wheat production in Syria is due to drought caused by climate change, and the report says that most parts of northeastern Syria experienced “long dry periods during the winter crop seasons, which dried up much of the growing wheat crop.

In recent years, wheat production in northeastern Syria has declined to record levels, as the winter agricultural season 2020-2021 recorded the lowest production level since 2017 in the governorates of Hasaka, Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor, according to data of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Wheat production in Al-Hasakah governorate last season represented 26 percent of what it was the previous year, after it declined from 805,000 tons in the 2019-2020 season to 210 thousand tons last season.

In addition to the climatic changes, and the decrease in the amount of rain, other challenges, as farmers face another challenge, which lies in the construction of Syrian factions loyal to Turkey dams on the Khabour River, which passes in several villages in northeastern Syria, which exacerbates the repercussions of the drought, according to a report published a few months ago by the PAX organization. Dutch Peacebuilding.

The local authorities are trying to support farmers according to the available capabilities, as the co-chair of the Agriculture and Irrigation Authority in the Kurdish Autonomous Administration in north and northeastern Syria, Laila Muhammad, says: "Due to the drought, this year we rely primarily on irrigated agriculture for three million dunams, which received our support from diesel and seed."

She added that one of the reasons for the decline of agriculture during the years of conflict was that "many farmers abandoned agriculture and left their villages" due to security tensions, in addition to "climatic factors that affected production and quality."

The Autonomous Administration and the Syrian government are competing to buy wheat crops from farmers, to provide the minimum needs of the areas under their control.

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