Pistachio nuts in Homs ... Farmers continue to harvest the crop and agriculture production is estimated at 870 tons

Hummus-Sana

Homs farmers continue to harvest the pistachio crop for the current season, which began a few days ago, with expectations of about 870 tons.

On a tour by SANA's reporter, on the areas of pistachio cultivation in the villages east of Homs, between farmer Moufid Muhaisin from Zaidal, he owns about fifty dunums planted with pistachio trees and that the production quantity this year is abundant, indicating that the harvesting process has started a few days ago.

The farmer Muhaisen pointed out that he replaced the cultivation of almonds with pistachios on his land, as it is a drought-resistant tree that bears great thirst and gives a good economic return. The crop is marketed through the cardamom market and prices are good this year, as the price per kilo ranges between 5,000 and 6,000 pounds.

For her part, Madeleine Sawan, “the supervisor of a workers' workshop for harvesting pistachios,” indicated that the workshop includes 25 workers, some of which work on harvesting pistachios and another part by sorting, sifting and packing pistachios into boxes indicating that the pistachio harvest season provides job opportunities for the people of the region and an important source of income for farmers.

Raghda Al-Darwish said that she has been working for about 8 years with her colleagues in a workshop for the harvesting of pistachios, where they carry out the process of purification and sorting of pistachios after her colleagues pick them, noting that the pistachio season has become an annual social and economic tradition for the people of the region.

Engineer Nazih Al-Rifai, Director of Homs Agriculture, indicated that the estimates of the production of pistachios for the current agricultural season amount to 870 tons, while the cultivated areas amounted to 8,525 dunums, most of which are rain-fed, including 213644 trees, including 198745 rain-fed trees, of which about 81 thousand trees.

Al-Rifai pointed out that the cultivation of pistachios has expanded in the eastern region and is now spreading over large areas in Al-Mukhram, Al-Haraki and Al-Othmaniyah villages, Tal Adai, Abu Hakfa North and South, and Tal Shannan, producing hundreds of tons annually.

Saba Kharibak