The agricultural sector is recovering in Darayya, and the cultivated area exceeds 3,500 dunums

Rif Dimashq-SANA

The area of ​​agricultural land invested in the city of Darayya, after the farmers returned to it, exceeded 3,500 dunams out of 11,000 dunams that were invested before the war on Syria, while efforts are continuing to overcome difficulties and obstacles by moving towards alternative energy.

The head of the Agricultural Association, Bashar Zawit, said in a statement to SANA reporter during her visit to the fields in Darayya that the farmers, despite the difficult conditions in which they work, they returned to their land to invest and overcome many difficulties until the cultivated area exceeded 3,500 dunams out of the 11,000 dunams that were planted before the war, including 700 Dunams planted with wheat, 1,000 dunams planted with beans, 500 dunams planted with lettuce and peas, 400 dunams with anise, and 700 dunams with fruit trees. It is expected that the production of one dunum of wheat will reach 400 kilograms this season.

Zawit said that about 60 percent of the people of Darayya work in agriculture, and not everyone has the same capabilities to install alternative energy to operate their wells, so it is important to work on granting them easy loans for this purpose, noting that the association distributed 4,500 liters of diesel this month to more than 64 wheat farmers at a rate of ten liters per dunam. Last month, 2,500 liters were distributed to more than 70 farmers, at a rate of five liters per dunam.

Farmers Ahmed Muhammad Al-Khaled and Nidal Al-Hassan are among the farmers who have relied on alternative energy in the process of irrigating their land, explaining that after returning to the land and beginning to prepare, cultivate and plant it, they found that resorting to installing solar energy is the best and most economical solution for them to secure irrigation water for their trees and plants in light of the lack of fuel oil. Sufficient to pump water from wells.

They explained that resorting to this technique, despite its high cost in the beginning, is more economical in the long run and better to achieve better productivity of agricultural crops, which vary between wheat, barley, beans, peas, anise, safflower, lettuce, tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers and others.

Other farmers demanded long-term loans to be secured for them to be able to install solar panels to operate their wells and water their crops. Farmer Riad Wahba confirmed that he does not have sufficient financial capacity to install alternative energy, which prevented him from investing part of his land, while farmer Omar Abu Al-Hawa stated that he would continue to work despite Difficulties to expand by cultivating his land and investing it again, pointing out that work is currently underway to restore the luster to planting the vine for which Darya was previously famous.

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