Twenty-two months of conflict has left Syria’s agricultural sector in tatters, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said in a news release today.

A United Nations mission reported to the FAO that cereal, fruit and vegetable production has dropped by half in some areas, and that there has been massive destruction of irrigation and other infrastructure.

The January 18-22 mission was coordinated with the government and with the opposition, and visited several affected areas in Damascus as well as in the governorates of Homs and Dara’a, FAO said. The mission team was composed of emergency directors from seven U.N. humanitarian agencies and led by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

“The mission was struck by the plight of the Syrian people whose capacity to cope is dramatically eroded by 22 months of crisis,” said Dominique Burgeon, director of FAO’s Emergency and Rehabilitation Division, who took part in the mission.

“Destruction of infrastructure in all sectors is massive and it is clear that the longer the conflict will last, the longer it will take to rehabilitate it,” he said.

About 10 million Syrians, or 46 percent of the population, live in rural areas, and 80 percent of them derive their livelihoods from agriculture.
Among the mission's findings:

• Wheat and barley production dropped to less than 2 million tons last year, from 4 to 4.5 million tons in normal years.
• Vegetable, fruit and olive production declined significantly in both Homs and Dara’a, including a 60 percent drop in vegetable production in Homs and a 40 percent drop in olive oil production in Dara’a.
• Only 45 percent of the farmers were able to fully harvest their cereal crops, while 14 percent reported they could not harvest due to insecurity and lack of fuel.
• There is a lack of access to agricultural inputs including quality seeds and fertilizers.
• There is a lack of irrigation due to damage to main irrigation canals especially in Homs and lack of fuel for irrigation pumps.
• Movement of livestock to grazing areas has not been possible and their survival is compromised by the lack of animal feed and veterinary drugs, the importation of which is hampered by sanctions.
• The production of poultry, a traditional source of cheap animal protein, has also been severely hit with major farms destroyed in Homs, Hama and Idleb.

“It is clear from discussions with NGOs and technical officers of the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform that security conditions permitting, agriculture has a huge role to play in helping people to stay on their land and generate income to cope with their most urgent needs,” said Burgeon. “They however need urgent agricultural support in terms of seeds, fertilizers, animal feed, veterinary drugs, poultry and rehabilitation of irrigation infrastructure.”