Cotton Festival in Aleppo… Participants: Contribute to the status of the cultivation, processing and marketing of cotton

Aleppo-Sana

The 57th Cotton Festival started in Aleppo today after an eight-year break due to the terrorist war on Syria.

The opening of the festival included a documentary on the history of the cotton festival, honoring the first distinguished peasants in production, an artistic presentation by the Aleppo Children Choir and the Mobile Agricultural Theater Band, and the opening of the exhibition “From the Memory of the Festival”.

Eng. Ahmed Al-Qadri, Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, stressed in his speech the importance of the cotton festival to be held in Aleppo after an eight-year hiatus due to terrorism, which the city used to host since 1954.

He pointed to the high rank occupied by this crop globally, referring to the efforts of researchers and agricultural workers in the preservation of national varieties adopted and seeding despite the global war on Syria.

For his part, Governor of Aleppo Hussein Diab, Chairman of the High Committee of the Cotton Festival, said that the establishment of the festival in Aleppo restores the importance of the cotton crop and its national strategic position and pushes the production wheel of the spinning and weaving factories and oil companies and constitutes a turning point for the objective status of the reality and problems of cultivation, manufacturing and marketing of cotton.

Abdo Al-Ali, President of the Farmers Union in Aleppo, spoke about the efforts exerted by the farmers to restore the Syrian cotton crop to its prestigious position at the Arab, regional and international levels.He pointed out that honoring the festival for the farmers today is a sign of the state's attention and care for them and the crop, which motivates them to exert more efforts to achieve abundant production.

Engineer Moataz Hamadeen Al-Ibrahim, head of the Syndicate of Agricultural Engineers in Aleppo, pointed to the role of the agricultural engineer in developing the agriculture sector, pointing out that the cotton research department has managed to overcome the challenges and worked to return the crop to its prestigious position by putting scientific and applied solutions.

SANA monitored the impressions of the winners of the first place winners in cotton production in terms of yield and unit area, where farmer Abdul Qader Kaddour from Aleppo province expressed his happiness with honoring at the festival and dedicating his honor to all peasants and heroes of the Syrian Arab Army, while Mohammed al-Wardi from al-Raqqa governorate pointed out that honoring is his biggest joy after suffering Eight years of terrorism are now back in production.

Hassan Suleiman, a farmer from Deir Ezzor, said he was proud of his excellence in production, which he reached thanks to the efforts and guidance provided by agricultural engineers, technicians and agricultural scientific research centers.

Mariam Al-Ahmad, a farmer from Al-Raqqah governorate, was the only woman who was able to excel and reach a distinguished position among the honored people.

In a statement to SANA correspondent in Aleppo, Eng. Wadah Al-Qadi, director of the cotton office, explained that the festival is a tribute to the peasants for the efforts exerted to produce cotton, adding that the area planted with cotton in Syria amounted to 33285 hectares for the current year and is expected to produce 100,000 tons.

In a similar statement, Ahmed Saleh Ibrahim, President of the General Union of Peasants in Syria, said that the return of the festival to Aleppo is an expression of the return of life to this province thanks to the efforts of farmers and the assistance of agricultural technicians, stressing the continuation of work and production to restore the shine to the cotton crop again.

Dr. Bassam Suleiman, director of the General Organization for Seed Propagation, said that the Foundation is working to multiply the seed and distribute it to farmers and it continues to develop and multiply new varieties suitable for cotton growing areas in Syria.

At the end of the day's activities, the exhibition “From Memory of the Festival” was inaugurated with more than 45 paintings by students of the Faculty of Fine Arts who monitored topics that dealt with cotton cultivation historically.

The coordinator of the exhibition, all other professor Hazi at the Faculty of Fine Arts that several workshops were organized for the students of the college to prepare works and paintings of the festival.

The student, Mayada Ghobash, said that she presented a painting showing a girl in folk costume and carrying cotton yields and behind Aleppo Castle, while the student Shahad Shannan said that she participates in the cotton festival exhibition to express the return of life of this crop and live joy with the peasants.

Student Jude Wattar from the Department of Photography, Faculty of Fine Arts, presented a painting in which a girl carrying cotton yields in a sign of the importance of this crop and abundance.

The opening ceremony was attended by Minister of Water Resources Hussein Hussein Arnous, Engineer Mohammad Rami Radwan Martini, Minister of Tourism, Engineer Maan Zein Al-Abidin Jatbeh, Minister of Industry, Fadhel Najjar, Secretary of Aleppo Branch of the Baath Arab Socialist Party, Abdel Majid Kawakbe, Governor of Deir Ezzor, and Syndicate of Agricultural Engineers in Syria, Dr. Rama Aziz.

The festival will continue on Friday with a show carnival of the participating carriages at the Cotton Festival, which represent the institutions and companies involved in the cultivation of cotton, chambers of industry, commerce and agriculture, and civil society organizations.

Qusai Razzouk

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