Derik – North-Press Agency
Solnar Muhammad
Fears of the Turkish border guards (Jandarma) that have targeted many farmers in the village of Ain Dewar bordering Turkey in the Derik countryside have led civilians to stop cultivating the lands bordering the Turkish border with summer vegetables.
For the past four years, Turkey has been depriving farmers of the village of the right to cultivate their lands along the Tigris River, where members of the Turkish border guards shot at anyone approsching their land, leading to the spread of wild boars in those lands, which are now posing a threat to crops on the Tigris River beds where summer vegetables are grown.
Saleh Abdullah Ferman, a farmer from the village of Ain Dewar, told North-Press that three years ago he planted crops such as tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, and watermelons on his riverside land in the sandy area, which covers two hectares.
He explained that he no longer cultivates his land because he still fears the Turkish forces; he has only cultivated a small area near his house that fulfills his family needs.
Saleh plans to return to planting vegetables next season, "if the situation stabilizes and the Turkish Jandarma does not target us," he said.
Ferman said most of the village's farmers went to grow vegetables in villages other than Ain Dewar, such as Jam Sharaf, Derka Baravi, and others, fearing being targeted.
Muhammad Shafiq, a farmer in the Derik countryside, said that farmers in the 50-hectare border region in and around Ain Dewar grew wheat for one year and irrigated crops or summer vegetables for another year, but they resorted to wheat cultivation again this year because of the spread of predators, especially boars, that destroy agricultural crops and feed on vegetables. This is in addition to the high costs of irrigated agricultural supplies such as seeds, fertilizers, and medicines, and the difficulty of managing production.
However, farmer Ibrahim Abdi, unlike the village farmers, planted one and a half hectares of his land with summer vegetables near the riverbed, because his land is not very close to the Turkish border. "I still have fears of being targeted by Turkish forces, but I am forced to plow my land and cultivate it," he said.
Abdi faces other problems, such as lack of labor in agriculture, and the spread of wild animals, especially boars that feed on crops, which forced him to grow eggplant because boars do not eat it.
Numbers of wild animals, such as wolves, boars, and jackals, have spread in lands close to the borders during the past years due to their transformation into a suitable environment for these animals, as they have not been plowed or cultivated for several years, according to farmers from those areas.
The co-chair of the Derik Agriculture and Livestock Committee, Salah Hamza, said in a previous statement to North-Press that wild boars in the villages of Jam Sharaf, Ain Dewar, and Derka Baravi adjacent to the Tigris River and the border with Turkey.
Hamza pointed out that the number of boars sometimes exceeds 50, as they search for the roots of some plants and earthworms, in addition to the lands planted with crops of wheat, chickpeas, vegetables and gypsum.
Municipalities and agricultural committees cannot deal with the problem of boars that destroy crops in that area bordering the Turkish border due to security concerns and the reaction of Turkish forces on the opposite side.
The Ain Dewar area was covering a large proportion of the needs of Derik and some of al-Jazira’s towns of summer vegetables, but production declined after the area of cultivated land was reduced due to Turkish threats.