It has been a difficult year for farmers in northeastern Syria, where a disappointing wheat crop appears set to deal another blow to food supplies in a nation already struggling with climate change and war. Farmers in northeastern Syria have also experienced fuel shortages and rising fertilizer prices.
Farmer Mohamed Hussein claimed that this season, due to challenges made worse by rising global fertilizer prices—a result of the Ukraine war—he only planted about a sixth of the area he would typically grow.
Hussein, 46, who was speaking as a combine harvester passed behind him in a town northeast of the city of Qamishli, said, “We are suffering from a shortage of petrol, expensive fertilizers.
The northeast is crucial to Syria’s ability to produce grains, but the Kurdish-led authorities in charge of the region do not believe that this year’s harvest will be sufficient to supply the rest of Syria, let alone meet their region’s demands.
It furthers the gloomy picture for Syrian wheat production, which has declined since the war broke out in 2011, raising concerns about food security in a nation where, according to the UN, demands are at unprecedented heights.
After a meager harvest in 2021, Imran Riza, the U.N.’s resident coordinator and humanitarian coordinator in Syria, informed the media that early signs indicate to yet another bad agricultural season.
Similar to last season, he said that the crop had been negatively impacted by a delayed start to the rainy season, extended seasonal dry spells, and a devasting early end to the rainy season.
Weather anomalies such as frost and a rapid rise in temperature also had an impact on crops.
He told the reporters, “Food prices have increased significantly, output and supply have been low, and the signals for the upcoming crop are highly frightening. “The overall state of food security is causing us great concern.”
The U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that Syria’s grain output will decline to an estimated 1.05 million tonnes in 2021 from an annual average of 4.1 million tonnes before the crisis, which was sufficient to supply domestic demand.
2020 saw 2.8 million tonnes of production.
Despite some of the gap being filled by wheat imports from Russia, a supporter of the Syrian regime, food insecurity in the war-torn nation is worse than it has ever been. One reason for this is the collapse of the Syrian pound.
In the northeast’s Kurdish-led administration, Nabila Mohamed, a senior official in charge of agricultural development, reported that 379,000 tonnes of wheat have already been harvested this year in the area.
There won’t be any surplus to supply Syria’s government-held territories as the anticipated production is only 450,000 tonnes, which is less than the 600,000 tonnes she claimed was required to meet the region’s demands.
“The previous year had little rain. Rain fell this year, but it didn’t fall at the appropriate time “Mohamed continued by stating that farmers had also been affected by the Ukraine war’s rise in the cost of imported fertilizers.
She claimed that most of the grain was grown on irrigated farms and that only a small part of rain-fed areas had been collected. Because more well-drilling licenses have been awarded this year than previous, the harvest in the northeast has been better, she added.
According to FAO, farmers in Syria’s rain-fed regions have lost the majority of their crop for the second year in a row.
Mohamed Ahmed, 65, claimed that the drought had caused him to incur significant losses and that his land was more of a liability than a resource.
“We complain about this land since we have lost money from it for the past two years. We allowed shepherds to use it to graze their animals, “said he.
