Government’s barley pricing not cover costs: Syria’s Suwayda peasants
SUWAYDA, Syria (North Press) – Government’s pricing to purchase barley is not suitable for this year which witnessed challenges led to a significant decrease of production, peasants of Suwayda, southern Syria, said.
Yesterday, the Syrian government defined the price of buying barley crop for this year at 800 Syrian pounds (SYP) per kilo.
“The price defined for barley crop by the General Corporation for Fodder of the Syrian government, is not suitable,” said Salem Hatoum, a peasant from the western countryside of Suwayda.
“The government price does not cover the costs,” he told North Press.
Hatoum pointed out that they had paid large sums of money to secure planting and harvesting supplies, amid high prices of fuel and manpower fare.
This year, the winter crops, especially wheat and barley, were subjected to lack of rainfall and sunn pest which damaged a large part of the crops, and thus significantly affected the year’s production, according to the peasants.
This season, the areas planted with barley in Suwayda amounted 40,000 hectares, while the ones with wheat amounted 22,000, according to a statistic by Agriculture Directorate in Suwayda.