Damascus-SANA
The Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform discussed its production plan for the 2022-2023 season, during a meeting held today in the presence of the Ministers of Agriculture, Agrarian Reform, Industry and Water Resources, and the President of the General Union of Peasants.
According to the plan presented at the meeting held at the ministry building, the irrigated agricultural areas were determined at about 1,369,864 hectares, and the total rainfed areas were about 4,390,324 hectares, according to the water budget.
The plan estimated the area of cultivation of the wheat crop at 1,519,865 hectares, including 872,407 hectares of rainfed and 647,458 hectares of irrigated, and the area of barley at 1,118,106 hectares (irrigated and rainfed), the autumn beet crop of 1415 hectares, the cotton crop of 58,308 hectares, tobacco 12,250 hectares, potatoes 35,956 hectares, and maize 107,057 hectares.
The plan also estimated the area of fruitful trees at 1,37,000 hectares, of which 177 thousand hectares were irrigated and 860 thousand hectares rainfed.
In livestock, the plan targets 872 thousand heads of cows and 16 million and 783 thousand heads of sheep and goats, one million and 907 thousand heads. The plan estimated the production of poultry 16 million and 677 thousand birds and 80 million and 560 thousand chickens. The plan for the production of veterinary care requirements of free vaccines estimated 22 million and 700 thousand Vaccine.
The participants in the meeting discussed the amendments to the plan, the challenges facing its implementation, such as climatic conditions, the difficulty of securing production requirements such as fertilizers, fuel, irrigation water, the availability of investments and the marketing of agricultural products.
In a statement to reporters, the Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, Engineer Mohamed Hassan Qatana, confirmed that the plan took into account the needs of citizens and the food, manufacturing and export industries, and the requirements for its implementation were identified to enable farmers to start farming at the beginning of next October, pointing out that it will be discussed in the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and approved as soon as possible.
For his part, Minister of Industry Ziad Sabbagh pointed to the importance of participatory discussion of the agricultural plan, because agricultural production contributes to the inputs of industrial production, and the industry provides the requirements for agricultural production.
The Minister of Water Resources, Dr. Tammam Raad, pointed to the impact of climate changes on the implementation of the plan, as it depends on rainfall and dam water stores, indicating the ministry’s role in counting the quantities of water in dams, preparing water balances for all water basins, and coordinating with the Ministry of Agriculture in preparing the plan according to the available stores. This is during the winter and summer planting seasons.
In turn, the President of the General Union of Peasants, Ahmed Saleh Ibrahim, drew attention to the difficulties faced by farmers in terms of securing production requirements, in addition to the high prices of labor and transport wages, calling for the announcement of the prices of strategic crops well before the start of farming so that the farmer can secure the requirements of their production and that there is a profit margin for him.
Mehran Mualla
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