Homs-Sana
The Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform seeks to increase and expand the areas cultivated with wheat in order to obtain abundant production of the strategic crop called yellow gold. The recent rains in all regions of Homs governorate encouraged farmers to start cultivating their lands with irrigated and rain-fed wheat, especially in the Badia, Qusayr and Talkalakh regions.
The Director of Homs Agriculture, Eng. Younes Hamdan, explained in a statement to SANA that the planned area for cultivating irrigated wheat for the current agricultural season amounts to 17,420 hectares, an increase of about 5,000 hectares compared to last year’s plan of 12,102 hectares, pointing out that the western area of Al-Bayarat, east of Homs, was one of the most prominent areas for the expansion of wheat cultivation. Irrigated, and this is after the tendency to invest all the self-flowing wells in the desert, so the area planned to be cultivated with wheat increased from 2000 hectares during the past year to 2660 hectares for the current season, while the cultivated area to date exceeded 300 hectares.
On the measures taken to support wheat farmers, Hamdan indicated that agricultural diesel is currently being distributed for the need for farming operations at a rate of one liter per dunum, and the necessary fuel for the irrigation process will be followed up, and as for fertilizer, farmers are supplied with it through agricultural banks according to actual need, pointing to the launch of the process Agriculture in several areas of the governorate with the onset of rains, where the areas in irrigated agriculture exceeded 450 hectares, while in rain-fed agriculture it reached 350 hectares.
For his part, the Director of the Agricultural Bank in Homs, Eng. Muhammad Al-Ahmad, confirmed that financing the purchase of wheat seed has started by granting the necessary loans to farmers according to the schedule of need and under an agricultural license, and the loan is disbursed within a period not exceeding 48 hours, and the disbursement notice is transferred to the Seed Multiplication Corporation, pointing out He indicated that about 56 million pounds have been disbursed so far as the value of loans to farmers.
In turn, the director of the Seed Multiplication Corporation branch in Homs, Eng. Mahdi Youssef, stated that about 2,800 tons of sterilized and sifted wheat seeds were sold to farmers, while last year about 4,000 tons of wheat seeds were sold, and we expect an increase in the pace of sales during the coming period, indicating the availability of sufficient quantities of The seeds are ready to be sold to farmers individually and through farmer associations.
A number of wheat farmers called for the need to speed up securing fertilizers in sufficient quantities, in addition to increasing the quantities of fuel allocated to the cultivation process and working to provide the allocated diesel, in order to ensure the implementation of the cultivation plan and obtain high productivity.
It is noteworthy that during the last agricultural season, more than 52,000 tons of wheat were marketed to receiving centers in Homs governorate.
Abdul Hamid Al-Junaidi
SANA Economic Bulletin
