(Eqtsad)- Siege and drought of groundwater wells and the lack of rain affected the winter grain crop in the northern besieged Homs countryside. Some agricultural engineers have expected a drop in grain to about a quarter of last year's level and 10 percent higher than in 2011.
Agricultural engineers and farmers spoke to Eqtsad in the besieged countryside and provided estimates of the wheat crop, which is very important for besieged people ranging between 5-6,000 tons in the best estimates.
Before 2011, the cities, towns and villages of the northern Homs countryside were one of the most fertile agricultural soils in Syria producing about 30 thousand tons of wheat.
"This year, the maximum number of villages in the besieged countryside, in terms of local wheat production, will not exceed 6,000 tons, five thousand tons of wheat planted with rain," said a source at the Seed Propagation Plant in northern Homs, and one thousand tons of irrigated wheat. "
He added that one of the main factors that led to the reduction of production was the lack of rainfall in the wheat blossom season in March and April, and about 40% of the arable land area was left out of service due to positioning of the regime barriers and its militias. So the farmer cannot access the land, and if he tries to plant it, he will either by killed by regime sniper or the regime will burn his crop.
In response to a question by Eqtsad regarding the production of irrigated areas of wheat, the source said, "irrigated areas make up only 5% of the area cultivated this year, or about (2000) acres of the total area cultivated by wheat estimated to be 40 thousand acres in the northern Homs ".
Adding that the production is excellent, and the productivity of per acre reaches about 500 kg, or the equivalent of 4 or 5 times the productivity of acres of wheat planted by rainfall.
The source pointed out that his organization, which financed the planting of 11,500 acres of wheat, in collaboration with the Qatari Crescent and the support coordination unit through a loan will find it very difficult to recover the loan from the farmers due to poor agricultural season in addition to securing the seeds for the next planting season. The seeds are estimated at about four thousand tons of wheat improved margarine.
$ 380 per ton
In response to a last question by Eqstad regarding the prices for wheat this season, the sources of the Seed Propagation institution in Northern Homs expected that the price of ton of wheat will reach 380 $, equivalent to 200 Syrian pounds per kg, and an increase of 100 dollars per ton compared to prices of wheat in the liberated areas in the governorates of Hama, Idlib and Aleppo.
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