FAO: Food production in Syria at lowest level ever

Food production in Syria has hit its lowest record as a lack of security in parts of the country and unfavourable climatic conditions in others hamper access to land and agricultural markets, the Food and Agriculture Programme of the United Nations (FAO) revealed yesterday.

The special report said: “The resilience of farmers has been heavily compromised after five years of conflict and fighting, and many may abandon food production, with potential grave consequences on the food availability at national level and on the food security of farming households and beyond.”

According to the report, the area planted with wheat did not exceed 900,000 hectares last year compared with 5.1 million hectares before the crisis, while production recorded a sharper decline falling from an average 3.4 million tonnes of wheat harvested annually before the war to 5.1 million tonnes this year, a decline of 55 percent.

The report pointed out that the lack of rainfall and the destruction of irrigation infrastructure make matters worse for farmers who are trying to continue to produce food under very difficult conditions and in some cases prompted farmers to switch from growing highly nutritional crops to less nutritional ones that do not need a lot of input, such as barley.