Hasakah – North-Press Agency
Jindar Abdulqader
During the preparation period for the agricultural season, harvester owners and farmers in the al-Jazira region fear that they will not be fair in determining the wages of the harvesters and the purchase price of barley due to the costs they incur as a result the high dollar exchange rate that caused a rise in the price of supplies, and because in return they will reap their profits in the Syrian pound.
Harvest owners in Hasakah and its countryside began preparing for the agricultural season with continued suffering, in light of the lack of availability and high price of spare parts as a result of the closure of roads and crossings for a long time with the implementation of precautionary measures to face the threat of the spread of coronavirus.
Preparations
Khaled Muhammad, 43, an IDP from Sere- Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) residing in the city of Hasakah who owns a harvester, said that he was preparing for the harvest season for about a month and a half through annual maintenance work.
He complained about the lack of availability of spare parts in addition to the high prices in light of exploitation by merchants. "In the past we were able to prepare the harvester with approximately 500,000 Syrian pounds, while we currently need more than 2.5 million pounds…one screw is worth four kilograms of barley," he said.
The prices of the various necessitated related to the harvest, from harvesters, tractors, and trailers to various other associated tools, are about 80 million Syrian pounds, according to him.
Expensive costs
Hassan Ismail Hassan, 33, who is also the owner of a harvester from Sere-Kaniye, told North-Press, "We buy the parts and pay the repair costs in dollars, while we receive our wages in the Syrian pound." He asked the authorities responsible in the Autonomous Administration to study the situation thoroughly, and take into consideration the issue of high costs for harvesters before they set harvesting prices.
42-year-old Ahmad Hamaki, a mechanic in the industrial area of the city of Hasakah, confirmed to North-Press that exploitation exists in all aspects of economic and commercial life in the city, especially among industrialists in the industrial area and the owners of shops selling spare parts, in light of the lack of spare parts and the large number of cars, harvesters, and vehicles.
He pointed out that they "use the dollar 's increase in price as excuse, and that they have bought all the parts in foreign currencies,” while some have had them for years, but are selling them at very high prices because they are rare.
Farmers fear
Saleh Abdulaziz says that they did not reap significant profits during the agricultural season of 2019 as a result of "the high expenses of the harvesters, the small numbers of them and the exploitation that took place after the fire devoured thousands of hectares of land, as well as the farmers’ fear of fire and their being exploited by the owners of agricultural harvesters to accelerate the process of harvesting, in addition to the low price of barley, which was at best 80 Syrian pounds per kilogram."
The Autonomous Administration set the purchase price of a kilo of wheat from farmers during the current season at 225 Syrian pounds, while it has not determined the price of barley so far.