QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Mahmoud al-Najri, a farmer from the village of al-Keber in the southwestern countryside of Hasakah Governorate, northeast Syria, complain about lack of support, high costs of cultivation, and low pricing of wheat provided by Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES).
The AANES set the price of each ton of wheat at $430. It began the process of receiving wheat in mid-May, and officials expected the quantities of received wheat would increase in light of the good season.
Al-Najri said, “We live in area where there are no springs or rivers … We were coerced to drill 50/60 meters deep wells, as drilling one meter of a well costs between 15,000 and 20,000 SYP (about $2).”
He continued, “Each well needs a motor to draw water that costs more than a million and a half SYP (about $170), electricity and a generators, and there are no subsidized fuel to run the generator, so we are coerced to buy fuel on black market for 1,200 or 1,500 SYP (about $1.5) per liter.”
All these measures precede seeding and irrigation which cost a lot.
The farmer added that there are some farmers who have 100 acres, but they can only use ten of them due to lack of capacities to dig wells that will be sufficient for their lands, in addition to lack of fuel, failures that need to be restored.
“We were about to let herds eat the plants, however, rains were good and we were not forced to irrigate the lands,” according to the farmer.
He also demanded that pricing must be good and fair, saying, “We are working without getting any benefits, as pricing $0.43 for each kilo of wheat does not compensate the costs that farmers pay.”
Neither organizations nor AANES supported the farmers in our area, he added.
Northeast Syria’s areas – known as Jazira – were well-known as one of the most fertile agrarian lands, however, the drought in the recent years and the reduction of water by Turkey in addition to the climate change have turned the fertile areas into arid ones and vegetation no longer exists.
In turn, Abdulbaset Ismail, a farmer from Qamishli, northeast Syria, said that at first, rains were light and crops were about to be spoiled, but later, good rains positively affected the crops.
This year, the AANES has decided to buy the wheat crops from the farmers at $430 per ton, that is the best price according to a war-torn country. But the farmers have another view.
“The pricing of wheat is unsatisfying for farmers, but it is good,” Ismail added. “We hope it will be better because the farmers paid big sums of money and faced so much difficulties regarding seeding, fuel, and fertilizers. The farmers cannot buy fertilizers, as each ton costs $700.”
For his part, Ahmad Younes, deputy of co-presidency of the Agriculture and Irrigation Board of the AANES said, “The price was defined based on the study of the cost of one acre of wheat with a profit margin that exceeds 35 percent so that the farmers can go on working and cultivating their farmlands,” adding, “We expect to buy about a million or a million and a half ton of wheat from farmers.”
During the 2022-2023 season, about 3.5 million acres of lands were cultivated with wheat in the AANES-held areas, according to Younes.
Rain fed farmlands in the AANES areas exceeded 13 million acres and they were cultivated with wheat and barley.
Nabila Muhammad, co-chair of Agricultural Community Development Company, said that they need 600,000 tons annually, as in the last two years, the harvest season was not that good and quantities available were not enough, so they imported wheat and flour through merchants.
Agricultural Community Development Company, is affiliated to Agriculture and Irrigation Board of AANES and it was officially established in 2018, as its main headquarters is in the city of Qamishli, , however, its branches are in all areas in northeast the country.
The company offers nitrogen and phosphatic fertilizers for farmers, receive crops of wheat and barley from farmers in soils of the region, milling wheat for bakeries of northeast Syria, and receiving crops of cotton from farmers.
“We have never had a surplus of wheat and flour. Either the quantities are sufficient for us, or there is a shortage, so we have to import. We have been importing wheat and flour for two years, according to Muhammad.
“We import fertilizers through merchants. So, we do not know the source,” she added.