Hummus-Sana
The value of the compensation provided by the Fund to Mitigate the Effects of Drought and Natural Disasters in Homs to some apple farmers affected by the weather factors amounted to about 7 million Syrian pounds, while the rest of the farmers are waiting for their compensation for the crop itself and for other crops, in addition to their demand for an increase in the compensation percentage and its value.
A number of farmers covered by compensation talked to the SANA Economic Bulletin about the necessity and increase in the value of compensation, including the farmer Muhammad Hammoud from the town of Shin in the western countryside of Homs, who indicated that he owns about ten dunams of apples of the two types "yellow and red" 80 percent of the crop was damaged as a result of exposure to the cold wave, indicating He obtained 158 thousand Syrian pounds as compensation, which is very small compared to the damage caused and the costs of agricultural work.
For his part, Dr. Hassan Al-Qurash, head of the extension unit in Shin, stated that the compensation for the affected farmers amounted to about fifteen thousand pounds per dunum, which is a very small amount and does not compare with the high costs, but it remains a bond and a subsidy for the farmer to bear part of the losses, indicating that there are specific conditions for the farmer to obtain Compensation, including the agricultural license, which is organized at the end of each year according to the agricultural areas on the ground in cooperation with the agricultural societies.
For his part, Mowafak Zakaria, Head of the Marketing Office of the Homs Farmers Union pointed out that the value of compensation provided to farmers by the Fund is relatively small and does not correspond to the size of the damage, and the mechanism and system of the fund must be modified and the percentage of damage compensation raised and calculated on the basis of cost, indicating that the area of damaged lands planted with apples in villages "Shein, Al Mahfrah and Al Marana" amounted to 3,641, with compensation amounting to 57 million Syrian pounds, which included 338 farmers, while there are affected apple growers in other areas awaiting their compensation.
Zakaria stressed the need to uncover and assess the damage as soon as it occurs, and within a period of no more than 24 hours, to find out the reality of the actual damage.
For his part, Amin Al-Hamwi, director of the Fund branch to mitigate the effects of drought and natural disasters in Homs, indicated that the fund compensated for the damage that occurred on 5-5-2020 on the apple orchards due to the cold wave in the villages of Al-Mahfoura, Shein and Al-Marana in the Western Center area, and the compensation amounted to 57 million pounds Syria, while the technical committees completed the study of the damage to the apple orchards in the Western Center and Tal Kalakh and Al-Karma Al-Arishy orchards in the Eastern Center and Al-Makhram regions due to the high temperatures, indicating that the compensation mechanism is carried out on the damage caused by an unavoidable natural accident of a catastrophic nature and the scope of its impact exceeds 50 Percent of the area cultivated with the same damaged crop in the approved administrative unit and that the size of the damage exceeds 50% of the expected total agricultural production.
The fund was established in 2011 with the aim of providing compensation to affected farmers in the agricultural sector, both plant and animal, according to the agricultural organization.
Saba Kharibak
SANA Economic Bulletin