Latakia-SANA
The Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, Engineer Mohamed Hassan Qatna, stressed the need to amend the accreditation program related to citrus marketing and expand it to include all areas planted with citrus to enable smallholder farmers to rehabilitate their lands and adhere to the agricultural practices that must be applied to improve production and marketing.
This came during a tour by Minister Qatna on citrus orchards and sales, sorting and packaging centers in a number of villages in the countryside of Lattakia, which included several farms that were included in the accreditation program. In light of the high costs of production inputs.
Qatana indicated that the ministry has continued to distribute phosphate fertilizers since the beginning of last December, and nitrogen fertilizers since the 15th of last February, with a quantity of 50 percent of the need according to the available quantities. Cooperation between farmers in each community to enable them to implement a collective and participatory marketing process with the local community, through which wholesale markets are organized and juice factories are provided with advance contracts.
In a statement to reporters, the Minister of Agriculture drew attention to the government's measures to regulate the marketing of citrus fruits this year, which contributed to overcoming many problems, stressing that an early plan will be adopted before citrus ripens in the next season, in order to avoid the recurrence of these problems at the peak of production.
Qatana pointed to the need to strengthen the role of agricultural extension and enable it to reach all farmers, pointing out that there is a plan to cooperate with the Ministry of Oil and Mineral Resources to convert the allocations from agricultural diesel to text messages that reach the beneficiaries.
For his part, Director of the Citrus Office at the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, Engineer Nashwan Barakat, indicated that the aim of the tour is to monitor obstacles and difficulties in marketing and work to develop solutions, whether by providing production requirements, prevention and agricultural extension in time, in addition to developing a vision for the marketing plan during the next season.
Director of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform in Lattakia, Eng. Basem Doba, explained that citrus is a strategic crop for the governorate, given the number of workers in it and its annual production, which sometimes reaches more than one million tons, indicating that any difficulties in marketing them have a direct impact on farmers.
Doba pointed out that the marketing of the crop, especially what is related to export, is mainly linked to providing full care for trees, including plowing, fertilizing and pruning, and there must be joint efforts between all parties, indicating that work is focused on developing a future plan to improve this cultivation and follow-up by the extension units in terms of raising awareness of farmers. and providing basic and organizational services.
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