Dry year leaves Syria wheat farmers facing crop failure

Dry year leaves Syria wheat farmers facing crop failure

TAL SHAEER, Syria: After Syrian farmer Abdelbaqi Souleiman lost his last wheat crop to a wildfire, he had hoped for a better harvest this summer. But this spring there was hardly any rain. “Last year the field I planted was burnt to the ground,” said the 48-year-old. “This year there wasn’t enough rain, and we didn’t harvest any wheat.” As man-made climate change increases the likelihood of drought and wildfires worldwide, Syria has also been hit hard by low rainfall this year, especially in its breadbasket Hasakeh province.

In the Kurdish-run northeastern region, dismal wheat harvests have raised alarm about food security in a war-torn country where 60 percent of people already struggle to buy food. In Hasakeh, humanitarian agencies estimate crop production to have dropped by more than 95 percent compared to last year in large parts of the province.

Souleiman said the lack of downpour, coupled with the high price of fuel for irrigation, seeds and fertilizer, had made growing the rain-fed cereal a near mission impossible. “At this rate, we’ll have to stop growing wheat,” he said in the village of Tal Shaeer. “Farmers are going to have to start planting herbs like coriander and cumin because it’s cheaper