Hummus-Sana
The Homs Agriculture Directorate expected that the agricultural production of various irrigated summer vegetable crops would reach 57,790 tons during the current season.
Engineer Nazih Al-Rifai, Director of Homs Agriculture, said in a statement to SANA that production estimates are good this season of all kinds of summer vegetables, after the return of farmers to invest their lands, especially in the northern countryside, indicating that potato cultivation constitutes the largest percentage of vegetables and production estimates reach 37100 tons and are grown in The areas of Qusayr, Tal Kalakh, and Rastan, as for the other estimates of vegetable production, were distributed over the tomato crop at 8,589 tons, and eggplant at 4,275 tons, while the estimates of the production of peppers reached 2016, and squash was 2,144 tons. And 489 tons of okra.
Al-Rifai pointed out that the agricultural areas are mainly distributed in the countryside of the eastern and western center, in Al Qusayr, Tal Kalakh, Al Makhram, Rastan and Taldo, indicating that the marketing process has started for all crops within the governorates and to other governorates, where 71 tons of tomato crop are marketed daily, 35 tons of eggplant and more than 15 tons of Cucumber, in addition to more than 20 tons of capsicum, about 18 tons of zucchini and 12 tons of cabbage.
During a tour by SANA's correspondent on the agricultural areas in the countryside of Rastan, farmer Abdullah Al-Najjar indicated that he owns 14 dunums planted with peppers and tomatoes, indicating that production is average this year due to the lack of fertilizers and their lack of availability in the required quantities from agricultural banks.
Farmer Hussein Al-Marai stated that the summer vegetable growing season this year is good and the prices are remunerative, after maintaining public irrigation networks and securing water to irrigate the crops, calling for providing sufficient quantities of fertilizers to farmers in agricultural banks.
For his part, Basem Al-Tawil, head of the Rastan Agricultural Association, explained that the implementation plan for the cultivation of summer vegetables in Rastan of “eggplant, pepper, tomato and cucumber” is good after the return of farmers to their lands and fully invested them in addition to restarting the main irrigation canal in the region, noting that production estimates are high as well as prices. Selling despite the many difficulties encountered by farmers, including the difficulty in securing fertilizers from agricultural banks and the high prices for them in the market.
Saba Kharibak
SANA Economic Bulletin
