Dysfunction of agriculture committees in Raqqa and harvester owners take advantage of fires

After this year’s tension between the farmers and the Self-Administration over the wheat and barley purchase prices in the north and east of Syria, besides the burning of thousands hectares of cultivated lands, farmers faced many problems during the harvest.

Nightmare of Fires and Extortion of Harvesters 

The farmer whose crop was preserved from burning was victimized by the greed of some harvester owners, who have ridden roughshod over the decision of the Agriculture Committee in determining the price of harvesting by 4% to 5%. While the daily harvesting fare has reached more than 12%.

Harvesters’ owners exploit the farmers’ fear of fires, which became a concern for most of them especially after many outbreaks of fires in different areas, forcing them to harvest their seasons at any price and be subjected to blackmailing of the harvesters’ owners.

Mohammed al-Salem, head of the Farmers’ Union in Raqqa, set the harvest price for the current season at 4-5 per cent, whereas the harvesters’ owners justify charging higher wages than the agricultural committees of the Self-Administration have set, to the rise of fuel prices that they buy by more than /35/Thousand Syrian pounds (61 USD) per barrel.

While the agricultural committees have distributed licenses to the harvesters to provide them with the necessary fuel for each harvester and other associated machinery on a daily basis ,but they take the low prices of the crop purchase as a pretext to raise harvesting rate.

Ibrahim Al-Haj Khalil, owner of a harvest, said, “5% does not cover the harvest wages because Self-Administration has lowered the prices of barley and wheat.”

For his part, Issa Al-Nayef, a farmer from the western Raqqa countryside, said that the owners of the harvesters raised the harvest rate for the low prices of wheat, as they would sell the rate of the product at low prices.

A group of farmers in the rural areas of Raqqa said they had no other choice on the harvest rate because they fear from the frequent fires.

While the citizens wonder about the granted licenses to the harvesters, which exceeded (1500) liters.

During the circumstances that the farmer undergoes Ahmad Jumma, a farmer, says, “the agriculture committees has no role in controlling the prices of the harvest, all their concern is focused on the purchase price of the crop.”

 

”They do not have the right to raise the rate of harvesting they have been given fuel licenses, but they need to be monitored.”

The demands of the farmers from Self-Administration and their Agricultural Committees include setting monitoring mechanism to the operation of harvesters and the rate of harvesting, bear their responsibilities and control violators., since harvest season is one of the most important livelihood resources that farmers depend on in the north and east of Syria.