Government Policies could drive farmers in Jazira to abandon wheat farming

These conditions could prompt a large number of farmers to reduce the areas they cultivate or leave part of their land uncultivated, affecting the local economy, which relies heavily on agriculture.

In the city of Tell Tamer in Hasakah province, farmers are facing a range of challenges as the new agricultural season approaches, including delayed payments for last season and rising prices of fuel, seeds and other production inputs. The developments have raised concerns over shrinking cultivated areas and declining agricultural output in a region where agriculture and livestock farming form the backbone of the local economy.

The challenges follow what farmers described as an “exceptional” agricultural season, which offered them an opportunity to recover part of the losses accumulated during years of war and secure the needs of the new season. However, payments were delayed for more than two months and then disbursed in installments, coinciding with a sharp increase in farming costs and limiting farmers’ ability to reinvest crop revenues.

Hasan Shandi, a farmer from Tell Tamer, said last season represented a major opportunity for farmers in the region, describing the harvest period as being like “weddings across the area” because of the hope it brought after years of hardship.

Payments Fall Short of Production Costs

Shandi said the joy of the harvest did not last long, as farmers had to wait more than two months to receive their payments, which were then disbursed in installments at intervals. He said farmers had hoped to use the money, despite the delay, to repay debts and secure the requirements of the new season. However, soaring fuel prices left the payments insufficient to cover production costs.

Shandi said the increase in fuel prices came as a major shock to farmers, explaining that land-plowing costs had risen to levels at which expected returns were no longer enough to cover expenses.

He said farmers now face a difficult choice, as the money received for last year’s crop may not even be enough to purchase seeds for the new season and secure the fuel needed for plowing.

Livestock Farming Also Struggling

According to Shandi, the problem is not limited to highly productive farmland but also extends to medium- and low-yield land, whose owners may be forced to leave it uncultivated because production costs have risen beyond the expected returns.

Similarly, farmer Barjas Aziz Ibrahim from Tell Tamer linked the agricultural crisis to livestock farming, stressing that the two sectors are directly connected and that higher fuel costs affect both.

“Agriculture and livestock farming are interconnected,” Ibrahim said, explaining that a farmer who owns both land and livestock needs fuel to operate agricultural machinery and also needs to secure feed for livestock, at a time when production costs no longer allow farmers to bear the growing burden.

He said farmers have been calling for agricultural support for years, but rising prices of fuel, seeds and other inputs have left them increasingly unable to meet their needs.

Ibrahim described the scale of the reduction he is personally considering, saying: “I used to cultivate 5,000 to 6,000 dunams, but in the new season I will not cultivate even 10 dunams,” if fuel prices and production costs remain at their current levels.

He added that operating an agricultural tractor has become a major burden for farmers, explaining that tractors require a daily supply of diesel, making access to fuel one of the main obstacles to starting the season.

With delayed payments, rising fuel prices and increasingly expensive seeds and production inputs, Tell Tamer’s farmers face a new season without the same capacity to cultivate the areas they previously farmed, threatening declines in both agricultural production and livestock.

Farmers are calling for payments to be made on time and for fuel, seeds and production inputs to be provided at affordable prices, alongside effective support mechanisms for the agricultural sector that would allow them to continue cultivating their land and maintain production.

On September 17, the Energy Ministry in Syria’s transitional government introduced three types of diesel at new prices.

The price of subsidized diesel was set at 115 new Syrian pounds per liter, equivalent to 11,500 old Syrian pounds, for heating, agriculture and other groups covered by the subsidy program.

Despite the Energy Ministry’s decision to introduce three types of diesel at new prices, the two types allocated for heating and agriculture, as well as public transportation, remain unavailable at fuel stations and in markets.

a.k

ANHA