QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – The 39-year-old Abdullah Issa, a farmer of the countryside of Qamishli, northeast Syria, was forced to buy six tons of wheat seeds from the market at nine million Syrian pounds (SYP, about 2,500 US dollar).
As a result of not being able to obtain his wheat seeds allocations for this year from centers of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), he was forces to buy the seeds from the market.
Currently, farmers are hurrying to prepare their lands and seeds hoping for rainfalls that may compensate the losses they suffered from last year.
It is an exhausting and expensive process, since each acre of irrigated land needs more than 30 kilograms of seeds and over five liters of diesel to plow and prepare it, according to farmers.
High expenses
Most of the farmers are facing difficulties in securing the expenses of these supplies in light of the losses that they suffered last year due to the draught that hit the region damaging most of rain-fed crops and doubling expenses of the irrigated ones.
Each kilo of wheat seeds has reached 1,700 SYP (about 0,50 US dollar) in the black market after it was about 1,200 early this year while it remained 1,200 SYP in the distribution centers of AANES.
Traders and farmers expect that the prices of each kilo of wheat seeds will reach 2,500 SYP (0,71 US dollar) in the black market with the onset of rainfall and planting season.
On September 10, cultivation centers in the AANES began the process of distributing the seeds for main winter crops in preparation for 2021/2022 season.
Farmers spend days preparing applications in order to obtain their allocations of seeds and diesel due to the crisis the distribution centers are witnessing in addition to the inability of the designated centers to meet the demands of all farmers, Farman Ali, a farmer said.
The centers distributed seeds and diesel for only several days and suddenly stopped without elaborating the reason.
Insufficient allocations
Farmers, who received their allocations, said that the allocations according to the set cultivation plan for 2021/2022 is “so little.”
However, allocations of the distribution centers cover only 70% of lands.
The cultivation plan for this year allocates 70% of lands for wheat planting, and 30% for other crops, so that “seeds will be distributed according to this plan,” agricultural officials in the AANS said.
Planting other crops, according to farmers, will cause them losses so that they are forced to buy the 30% left of wheat seeds from the market at prices which is “large,” according to them.
8,000 tons of seeds were distributed to farmers of Qamishli before the distribution stopped due to the increasing pressure on the centers, co-chair of General Administration of Agriculture, Nisrin Khalil, said.
“Distribution process will resume as soon as possible after finishing the ongoing sterilization process of the seeds,” Khalil added.
The agricultural organization is carried out according to the space of land available to each farmer, according to the agricultural plan issued by the Agriculture Board in 2021.
32 kg of durum wheat seed and 30 kg of soft wheat are allocated for each acre of irrigated areas, and 22 kg is located for each acre of rain-fed lands, Khalil indicated.
Lack of diesel allocations
Additionally, farmers are suffering due to the lack of the diesel allocations of the irrigated lands.
Farmers do not obtain their monthly allocations (35 liters for each acre) of diesel, but they obtain 15 liters only forcing them to sprinkler irrigation due to the lack of labor for watering via wells.
However, this process needs a generator and big quantities of diesel (about 3,000 liters per month).
Meanwhile, farmers receive only 500 liters of diesel per month.
“This year, the Directorate of Agriculture allocated five liters of diesel for plowing each acre of irrigated lands and two liters for plowing each acre of the rain-fed lands,” the co-chair of General Administration of Agriculture noted.