Cotton farmers’ hopes for the abundant season in Hasakah are hampered by high costs

After years of cotton-season losses due to insect pests and lack of support, the crop has witnessed abundant production in all areas of north and east of Syria this year, due to good rainfall. 

Not all this abundance and rising rainfall have helped farmers, as the high costs of the crop may almost be paid for the costs of cultivation.

Cotton, the so-called “white gold”, is one of the most important strategic crops on which farmers depend in north and east of Syria, where cotton comes second after wheat.  

This year’s cotton season has witnessed a good production, according to the farmers, but its cultivation has halved from last year’s due to the losses of farmers, according to local sources. 

Ahmad al-Sallal, a farmer from the eastern countryside of Hasakah told North-Press that last year’s cotton season caused huge losses due to the spread of the spiny worm, which led to a decline in the production amid the absence of the encouragement from the concerned authorities.  

Al-Sallal pointed out that despite last year’s losses, we planted the crop again, to compensate the losses, but “with less farmland”, he said, noting that production was good for the year, but costs were high. “We bought the half of fertilizer amount and fuel at high prices from the black market”, he said. 

According to al-Sallal, if the production is discharged according to the Autonomous Administration price at 330 SYP (about 52 cents), “they will lose the production”, as he said. 

In turn, farmer Ali Issa al-Hamid expressed his dissatisfaction with the high prices of materials, in the absence of encouragement, “Prices are low and don’t meet the costs of agriculture. We, as farmers, have no other income but agriculture, so getting lost of the season will make a lot of damage for us”, he added.

He stated that the support of the Autonomous Administration for the farmers is so little, adding that, “At the fuel level we are given 15 liters for each dunam, this isn’t enough, therefore, we are forced to buy it from the black market, which is usually high, so we reduce the cultivated area because of fuel”.

Al-Hamid mentioned that he planted an area of 20 dunams this year compared to 50 dunams last year, adding that, “we received significant losses due to insect pests last year, while the concerned authorities didn’t provide support, so this year we planted a fewer areas because of lack of support”.  

It is noteworthy that the Autonomous Administration in north and east of Syria has set the price of cotton for the current season of the first kind at 330 SYP, while the lowest price at 320 SYP. 

Commenting on the farmers’ responses, the administrative director in Scoop and Cotton Marketing foundation of the North and East of Syria, Ahmad al-Younis told North-Press that he is officially receiving this year’s cotton crop, expecting the production to reach between 250-300kg per dunam.  

He pointed out that they have avoided the problem of insect pests this year, by preventing the entry of poor quality pesticides to the region, after last year witnessed the spoiling of 70% of the production. 

He also pointed out that as a concerned authority, they have provided all the available possibilities for the farmers to encourage them, after the cultivation of this strategic crop has declined significantly since the years of the Syrian crisis, and they have set the appropriate price according to the global stock market.