The future vision of the agricultural sector… A lecture by the Minister of Agriculture at the Faculty of Economics

Damascus-SANA

The difficulties and challenges of the agricultural sector, the measures taken to advance it, the future vision, and its development strategy to achieve efficiency and sustainable agriculture from 2021 to 2030 were the focus of a lecture delivered by the Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, Eng. Muhammad Hassan Qatana, today at the Faculty of Economics at Damascus University.

Qatana gave an explanation about the reality of the agricultural sector and the decline in its contribution to the GDP, pointing out that the comprehensive destruction that this sector was subjected to during the terrorist war on Syria prompted the adoption of immediate unsustainable government policies, which led to a decline in food security in some areas that depend on agricultural production as an area The island.

Minister Qatana stressed that developing agricultural production and achieving its stability requires the availability of a map of land uses, the completion of soil classification maps, the dissemination of appropriate alternative agricultural courses, strengthening the participation of the local community, rehabilitating damaged lands, raising the efficiency of irrigation water use, activating the regulatory frameworks for the protection and development of the Badia, and creating the regulatory environment for labor governance and resource development. human rights and improving the quality and specifications of agricultural products, in addition to activating contract farming and creating agricultural machinery centers affiliated to the private sector that work to provide the necessary mechanisms and set new standards for classifying strategic crops at the level of each governorate and not at the level of the crop.

He pointed out the need to manage the governmental irrigation networks well, and that the food industries should be commensurate with the increase in production, the development of ports, the establishment of special marketing companies, the development of financing mechanisms from the Agricultural Bank and their expansion in terms of type and target audience.

The interventions of the attendees focused on achieving economic, food and water security, future visions for them, the reasons for the low prices of citrus, the possibility of establishing a fruit juice factory on the Syrian coast, the need to benefit from specialists and local experts to advance the economy, and the ministry’s measures to alleviate the suffering of farmers from lack of production requirements and marketing problems, and the need to develop an agricultural map specifying places Cultivation of every crop and the possibility of investing lands belonging to the government sector.

In response to the interventions, Qatana explained that the production plan in the Euphrates regions decreased by 30,000 hectares due to the Turkish regime cutting off the Euphrates River, noting that there are more than one million hectares of state land leased to farmers.

He said: The ministry is working to secure production requirements despite the difficulties, as the full need for fertilizers has been provided with a subsidy of up to 60 percent of its price, and the modern irrigation project has been supported by 22 billion pounds this year.

The lecture was attended by the Dean of the Faculty of Economics at Damascus University, Dr. Ammar Nasser Agha, Dr. Ali Kanaan, the Scientific Representative at the faculty, and a number of professors of the faculties of economics and agriculture, graduate students and agricultural engineers.

Mehran Mualla