Syria’s climate-scorched wheat fields feed animals, not people

Syria’s climate-scorched wheat fields feed animals, not people

Moussa Fatimi’s wheat field was once part of a thriving Syrian breadbasket. Now, he can’t even grow enough to feed his family, and the land has been turned over to animals. Fatimi’s crop has withered from a climate crisis, adding to fears of supply shortages sparked by the war in Ukraine as Syria grapples with record-high rates of food insecurity. “For the second year in a row, we face drought,” Fatimi, 85, told AFP at his parched plot. “We haven’t even harvested enough this year to secure our own supply of bread. Our losses are in the millions,” he said.

Syria is among the countries most vulnerable and poorly prepared for climate change, which is forecast to worsen, posing a further threat to the wheat harvests that are an essential income source for a war-battered population. The trend is most evident in Syria’s once-fertile northeast where wheat fields are drying to a crisp because of severe drought and low rainfall, challenges also faced by Iraq and other neighboring countries.

In Umm Hajrah, a village northeast of Hasakeh city, Fatimi meandered through a wheat field dotted with sheep munching on the crops. “It’s just straw. There’s no seeds,” he said after pulling up