Farmers Demand Self-Administration to Pay Crops Prices Without Delay
Farmers Demand Self-Administration to Pay Crops Prices Without Delay
Farmers in northern and eastern Syria see the purchase prices of wheat and barley, that were set by the Syrian government this year, an attempt to deceive farmers whose price was more than Self-Administration’s price in the region.
At the same time, the farmers demanded Self-Administration not to be delayed in paying the bills because of their need for money.
The competition between the Syrian government and Self-Administration on wheat and barley season is clear enough in northern Syria, where the Syrian government decided to purchase wheat with /185/ SYP and barley with /135/ SYP, while Self-Administration decided to buy wheat with 150 and barley by 100 Syrian pounds.
Prices
Munther Kadir Idan, a 30-year-old farmer from Sharkat a village north of Raqqa, told North Press that “Self-Administration’s prices are good,” noting that the season this year was good and will compensate them for previous years.
“Before the prices were set, we sold barley to traders in Raqqa at 75-80 Syrian pounds,” assuring they would sell the crop to Self-Administration because “The Syrian government has not given us anything so far.” Idan said.
Munther asked Self-Administration not to delay in payment of wheat and barley bills, because farmers need money and have to pay their debts.
For his part, Ramadan Wa’iran, 28, from Saluk, north of Raqqa, called on Self-Administration for the repair of roads to the silos because most of them are impassable.
He also confirms on the Administration not to delay paying their crops bills because they have obligations and debts.
Storage Centers
Mohammed Abdul Razzaq Sheikho, an employee of a grain storage center (north of Kubani), said they have prepared silos to receive farmers’ crops, mentioning that the capacity of the silos is /13/ thousand tons, and they provide facilities for farmers each year.
According to Sheikho, Farmers do not trust “the regime” because some of them were not paid for their crops, those of whom had debts to the Syrian bank or were wanted by the security in the past years.
The Ministry of Economy and Agriculture expects the production of the wheat season to reach one million and one hundred thousand tons while barley to one and a half million tons this year.
Furthermore, the Ministry has allocated /200/ million dollars for purchasing crops from farmers and storing them in /15/ centers with a capacity of /700/ thousand tons.
It is worth mentioning that the Self-Administration quotation of wheat and barley provoked the reaction of most farmers in the areas of the Administration compared with the quotation that was set by the Damascus government.
The Self-Administration decided to re-evaluate the purchase price of wheat and barley from the farmers in a meeting that has not been scheduled yet.
Raqqa – Yahya Omar / Fayyad Muhamad NPA