Rural Damascus-SANA
The Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform is working to expand the cultivation of pomegranate in the Damascus countryside governorate due to the economic and health importance of this fruit, as most of the irrigated cultivated areas are concentrated in Eastern Ghouta and rainfed in Yabroud.
According to the estimates of the Ministry of Agriculture, the quantities of pomegranate production in the governorate for the current season reached 1772 tons, while the total cultivated areas amounted to more than 337 hectares, and the number of trees exceeded 150 thousand trees.
The Director of Agriculture in the Governorate of Damascus Countryside, Engineer Irfan Ziadeh, explained in a statement to SANA’s delegate that the irrigated areas planted with pomegranate are concentrated in Nabek and Qatana, and most of them are in Eastern Ghouta, with an area of more than 100 hectares and a total number of trees of 76,000.
The pomegranate planted in Yala is concentrated according to an increase in the regions of Rankos and Yabroud, the most in the latter, with an area of 4.5 hectares, and the number of trees exceeding two thousand trees.
The head of the Agricultural Association in Yabroud, Ali Fayyad, confirmed that most of the agricultural areas spread in Yabroud are not devoid of pomegranate fruit, as farmers are keen to plant them on the outskirts of the fields to be a bracelet for them in addition to the material income that helps them, indicating that the production of this season was abundant and its prices are rewarding for farmers.
Fayyad stated that during the current and last season, more than 8,000 seedless and large-sized French plants were distributed to farmers, and work is underway to expand this cultivation, as the climate in Yabroud greatly helps the success of pomegranate cultivation.
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