The artificial lake of Homs, located 1 kilometre as the crow flies from the large city in central Syria, forms a vast blue expanse at the foot of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range. Farmers and women in colourful headscarves are busy in fields planted with corn, vegetables and olive trees. Teenagers and children graze their flocks of goats and sheep. “Before the war, you couldn’t see the lake from here. Our plot was surrounded by oak trees. They were either destroyed in the fighting or cut down for firewood.”says Mohamed (like the other witnesses cited, he did not want to give his name and his name has been changed), a 38-year-old farmer from Qattiné, a Syrian village near the Lebanese border, famous for its variety of apples.
For the attention of our readers.
The “Syria Notebooks” are a series of reports compiled in the summer of 2024. For security reasons, some of the people quoted speak under pseudonyms. For these same reasons, the names of the authors of these reports are not mentioned.
Attacks by Syrian rebels near Qattiné in 2012 and 2013 were repelled by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. His portrait is displayed on the military barrier protecting the entrance to the village. Old, rusty tanks are abandoned at an army maintenance base.
The farmer and his two brothers, the youngest of whom, aged 32, is still on active duty in the army, were only able to access their 2.5 dunam plot (1 dunam is equal to 1,000 square metres) before 2018. They were able to harvest a few potato crops until the profitability of their business was threatened by the economic crisis, the worst Syria has experienced since the start of the civil war in 2011.
“We are fishermen too”
“All materials have become more expensive and the selling price of potatoes is very low. We produce 1.5 tons of potatoes per dunam if the weather conditions are good. Last season, the ton was sold for 6-7 million Syrian pounds. [entre 360 euros et 430 euros], while the cost price is 6 million Syrian pounds per tonne.”explains the farmer.
She found no solution for seeds and fertilizers, which were very expensive. On the other hand, she managed to save a third of the amount by installing, in 2023, seven solar panels purchased thanks to a loan of 24 million Syrian pounds granted by the Syrian association Hope Center. She opted for drip irrigation, unable to buy electric sprinklers.
Under the combined effects of war and climate change, Syria has already lost more than 50% of its agricultural production in ten years, estimates the International Committee of the Red Cross based on a study published in 2023. In the past, the country exported olives, cotton, wheat, lemons and other fruits and vegetables. Due to the economic crisis, farmers, who make up about a quarter of the Syrian population, no longer make a living from their crops. However, half of its inhabitants – almost twelve million people – suffer from food insecurity.
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