(Zaman Al Wasl)- In an attempt to win the race over this season’s wheat crop in northeastern Syria, the regime government has approved to raise their buying price from farmers from 225 to 400SYP per kilogram (35 cent), one day after the Democratic Union’s announcement of raising it to 315 SYP.
With the continued collapse of the Syrian pound – its exchange rate against Dollar declining again to reach 1,850SYP, and the increase in production costs, farmers are currently struggling, especially with the frequent crop fires, while prices remain stagnant and the marketing process is monopolized.
In addition, the Cabinet also decided to purchase the entire crop of barley at 150 SYP per kilogram, a month after announcing that it would allow grain traders to buy it at this price as a minimum.
These prices did not satisfy the farmers who paid for pricey production costs in fuel and fees for tractors and workers based on the skyrocketing prices and the ever-dropping exchange rate of the SYP.
Meanwhile, local sources reported that a fire had erupted, destroying around 2.5000 acres of wheat crops in several villages southeast of Ras Al-Ain.
The fire, which stretched from Jisr Al-Saffh to Aneeq Al-Hawa village, burned over an area of 2,500 hectares of crop residue before a Turkish fire truck intervened to contain it from the northern side.
Two days ago, the fire reached the houses of some of the farmers destroying around 3,700 hectares of farming land between the areas controlled by the National Army and areas controlled by Kurdish units, which resulted in the death of two young men who her helping to put out the fire in Asadiyah.
There are still no exact numbers to the extent of the damage yet, with authorities still trying to contain the fires.
During the past two days, the Hasakah Fire Brigade extinguished five fires in the vicinity of Jabal Kawkab. While in Raqqa, an accidental farmland fire broke out during the harvesting process in the village of Bayoud, near Salhabiyah.
Last week, the First Response Team of the Kurdish Autonomous Administration contained and extinguished a field fire in Droubiyah village, making it the second fire that the team extinguished, after the one in Hittin, on May 5.
Yet another series of fires that devoured, during the month of May, over 5,000 acres of grain in Abu Khashab desert and the borders between Hasakah and Deir Ezzour, in addition to large areas near the towns of Tal Tamr and Ain Issa, along conflict lines on the borders of Peace Spring.
Last year, crop fires in northeastern Syria caused $50 million in damage to wheat and barley harvests.
At least 14 farmers died in 2019 while desperately trying to save their crops from arsonists and to save their livelihoods.
Zaman Al Wasl
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