(Eqtsad)- With the start of the harvest season each year, the regime forces and sectarian militias that aid it purposefully ignite fires whether by plane or by shelling fields from the checkpoints surrounding the cities and towns in Homs’ besieged northern countryside.
Eqtsad’s correspondent in Homs stated that the Russian airplanes are participating alongside the regime forces this year in burning the agricultural crops with the start of the harvesting season. He added that the Russian fighter jets launched 4 airstrikes two days ago on the village of Tallaf and its agricultural fields which led to the incineration of over 50 acres of land planted with wheat and barley and if not for the arrival of the civil defense al-Houla sector at the right time the fire would have extended to larger areas due to the heavy winds.
-Staying up at night next to fields-
The farmers of Homs’s northern countryside confirmed to Eqtsad that a number of fires were stated this year due to the regime checkpoints targeting fields with burning bullets, leading farmers to watch their fields night and day.
Eqtsad’s correspondent in Homs stated that the Russian airplanes are participating alongside the regime forces this year in burning the agricultural crops with the start of the harvesting season. He added that the Russian fighter jets launched 4 airstrikes two days ago on the village of Tallaf and its agricultural fields which led to the incineration of over 50 acres of land planted with wheat and barley and if not for the arrival of the civil defense al-Houla sector at the right time the fire would have extended to larger areas due to the heavy winds.
-Staying up at night next to fields-
The farmers of Homs’s northern countryside confirmed to Eqtsad that a number of fires were stated this year due to the regime checkpoints targeting fields with burning bullets, leading farmers to watch their fields night and day.
Abu Mahmoud, a farmer from Talbiyseh said, watching the land is the only way to protect it from burning. He added to Eqstad’s correspondent that the cost of growing one acre of wheat exceeds 20 thousand Syrian Pounds, “so we must stay up at night next to the fields of wheat and barley, it is better than helping to put out the fire.”
Abu Mahmoud confirmed that the agricultural produce, especially grains is the only source of income for over 60% of those besieged in the northern countryside.
Another farmer said, “the farmers benefited from the fires that happened in prior years as this year they purposefully divided up on field into several sections so that the flames would not consume the whole field, only parts of it because some parts were left unplanted.”
This helped the civil defense teams present in some of the cities and towns in the liberated northern countryside in putting out the fires, and they exert a lot of effort in this regard as a result of the large burden placed on their shoulders despite the lack of firefighter cars that they own.
Translation by Rana Abdul
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