Summer seasons in al-Raqqa compensate farmers' losses of wheat season

AHMAD AL-ASSAF / AL-RAQQA

The wheat season, which is one of the largest agricultural seasons in al-Raqqa city the farmers depend on it in their annual income, was exposed at the beginning of May to heavy floods due to rainfall, resulting crops rotting and low wheat production.

To compensate for the loss, farmers in al-Raqqa city and its countryside resorted to summer crops, and farmers usually plant "red melon, vegetables, corn and cotton".

As a result of the influx of local vegetables to the market, the prices of vegetables decreased significantly.

Farmer Ahmad al-Ramdan said, "The wheat season has been damaged and we have suffered large losses, we are compensating these losses by planting summer crops, we are harvesting crops through wells due to the damage of the irrigation pump in the area."

Farmer Ahmad al-Hussein said, "We started planting summer crops which are less expensive and the duration of harvest is less than the second crop and ranges from 3 months to 4 months. Summer seasons, especially vegetables and watermelon, achieved self-sufficiency in the area at suitable prices for the citizen."

Ahmed al-Hussein and Ahmed al-Ramadhan appealed to the Civil Council in al-Raqqa to support agriculture, open agricultural banks and provide fertilizer and hybrid seeds for farmers and medicines.

"We have provided irrigation water in some areas and there are idle pumps that need expensive sum of money to be repaired, and we do not have the support to fix them,” supervisor of the agriculture committees Abdullah Shehata said.

Al-Raqqa city and its countryside witnessed agricultural and economic activity after liberation from IS mercenaries by the Syrian Democratic Forces on 20 October 2017, hundreds of farmers returned to cultivate their land after the black era in which al-Raqqa city had passed through.

H/S

ANHA