(Eqtsad)- Throughout Deraa’s history, the livestock industry been a major source of income for a wide range of citizens in the province. Work in livestock and related professions provided thousands of jobs for people in the province. This sector, in tandem with the years of the Syrians revolution, has started to witness a regression due to the war and its negative ramifications on all forms of livelihood and different sectors.
Abu Nidal, 65, said, “Houwrani society is an agricultural society, and in the past it depended on its citizens’ efforts to provide their need of food and drink through fundamental sources of livelihood most of which is concentrated in economic agriculture and livestock.” He indicated that cows, sheep and goats were raised in almost every countryside house to provide milk, yogurt, and wool, and the excess was sold or exchanged for other primary goods.
He recalled, “the Houwrani farmer or peasant, twenty years before, would raise a number of heads of sheep or cows when livestock was one of the fundamental sources of income where you find peasants and famers with several heads of livestock who benefitted from it in addition to the animals’ role in transporting agricultural produce, plowing, and other agricultural tasks.”
Abu Nidal added that after much advancement and the wide availability of vehicles, modern techniques, and jobs, people depended less on livestock and famers were less interested for it to turn into a specialized investment profession which some people practiced it if they were unable to find other opportunities and others practiced it because they inherited the profession especially in areas where the necessary factors to raise livestock are available.
Kassem al-Hasan, a veterinary doctor, said that Deraa province was and still is one of the Syrian provinces that depends directly on raising livestock based on its position as an agricultural province which possesses all the resources needed for raising livestock. He indicated that the province includes a large herds of sheep, cows, horses, and camels but the numbers decreased noticeably during the revolutionary period because of the forced migration of residents in search of safety, and their inability to move their livestock to safe areas, and the lack of feeding grounds due to military operations. Most of the agricultural areas in the province became battle fields, other than the large numbers of cattle which were smuggled by war profiteers and smugglers who took advantage of owners.
Cattle owners feared they would lose all their cattle so they sold the cattle at for low prices, and smugglers and war profiteers sold the cattle for ten times the price to neighboring countries and regime controlled areas.
Abdul Khalik, a trader, indicated that the price of cattle and their products were cheap and accessible in the province prior to the revolution, but the decrease in the number of livestock has caused the increase of the price of heads of cattle whether cows or sheep. This in turn led to the increase in the price of all their products such as milk, yogurt, cheese, wool, or meat. He indicated that the price of a cow reached over 1 million and a half Syrian Pounds, while the price of a kilogram of milk reached 150 Syrian Pounds (SP), and yogurt 200 SP.
The price of a kilogram of drained yogurt reach 850 SP, cheese reached over 1000 SP, while the price of a kilogram of sheep meat reach 3,300 SP, the price of lamb 3500 SP, whereby the prices all rose ten times their previous prices.
According to Mouthak Thabit, an agricultural engineer, statistics are available of the number of cows and other cattle in Deraa province from prior to the revolution. He explained that around 55,000 heads of cow, of the Joulani and enhanced Friesian kind were present in the province. The number of heads of sheep exceeded 650,000 heads most of the al-Awaes type which is characterized by high productivity of meat, wool and milk. The number of goats exceeded 110,000 most of the Shami type.
Thabet indicated that these numbers have decreased to less than half due to the circumstances Syria is living and the continued smuggling operations which have emptied whole areas in the province of livestock. He added that the government dairy farms in Muzayrib and al-Yadudah, and the Syrian Libyan company going out of service has affected the quantities of milk and its derivatives available as these farms provided the province with cows.
For his part, Abu Khaled a sheep herder confirmed that there are many difficulties in raising livestock due to the lack of secure pastures, the expense of animal feed, the lack of agricultural land where wheat, grain and other crops were planted, and which served as ideal pastures for sheep.
He indicated that he used to own over 200 heads of sheep at the start of the revolution but he was forced to sell them in 2013 and take refuge in Jordan due to the deteriorating security situation in parts of Deraa and the intensity of regime force bombing.
He added that he returned to Deraa in 2015, and was unable to find any work to provide for his family so he returned to raising sheep. His herd this time, however, does not exceed 10 heads which he recently bought for exorbitant prices, 850,000 SP while ten heads cost less than 200,000 SP when he left the country in 2013. He indicated that he, as other herders, are facing major difficulties such as the lack of veterinary medication or if available its high prices, the lack of wheat agriculture which is part of the animal’s nutritional needs.
The livestock sector in Deraa was one of the most pioneering investment sectors in Syria according to specialists and livestock owners. The sector now faces grave dangers due to its clear draining. Efforts must be made to stop the smuggling activities, and provide the essential resources needed to raise livestock to save this economic sector.
The situation in the livestock industry cannot be separated from the bad economic circumstances caused by the war which no human, living creature, or plant in Syria has not suffered from. The situation continues with no end in sight or hope of a close resolution based on the increasing complications of the Syrian situation.
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