Syria’s wheat production dropped to a near-30-year low because of weather and conflict, according to a UN report.
“Wheat production this year fell to a 29-year low of 1.2 million tons, about two-thirds of 2017 levels,” the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) stated on Tuesday.
The cause was two-fold – “an extended period of dry weather early in the cropping season followed by heavy out-of-season rains” and continued conflict, according to an assessment by FAO and the World Food Programme (WFP).
“The conflict in Syria has also damaged vast farming areas, displaced thousands of Syrian farmers and triggered a sharp increase in the cost of agricultural inputs,” FAO stated.
Syria is heavily dependent on the Euphrates River for its water. That waterway is under stress in all three countries it traverses – Turkey, Syria, and Iraq – because of overuse and climate change.
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