Agriculture Sector and Agricultural Market System – Northeast Syria

Current Context

Before the Syrian war started, the agriculture sector accounted for a quarter of Syria’s gross domestic product (GDP) and was the main livelihood for almost half of the population. Due to the ongoing conflict, Syrians primarily faced a deteriorating economic situation, and as a result, increasing food insecurity. According to Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) of 2017-2012, a third of the population (approximately 6.5 – 7.9 million people) were food insecure while an additional 2 – 2.5 million were at risk of food insecurity – all worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The number of food insecure people has increased by 22%, from 6.5 million in 2019 to 7.9 million people in 2020. Although continued clashes and an expansion of hostilities induced the massive displacement of over a million vulnerable people and restricted UN-authorized cross border aid to a single access point, those directly affected are mostly limited to northern Syria. In contrast, the worsening economic and resultant food security conditions affected all locations in Syria.

Other Contributing Factors

The ongoing Lebanese financial crisis has directly impacted Syria, as many Syrians, due to close political and economic ties and in order to circumvent international sanctions that restricted access to financial markets, had established Lebanese bank accounts, which they used for business and personal needs. The financial crisis reduced the supply of US dollars in Syria, massively depreciating the informal exchange rate, causing import prices to skyrocket, and thus making food exceedingly expensive for the average Syrian. Additionally, renewed US sanctions on Iran have prevented the import of Iranian oil into Syria, upon which Syria heavily depended, resulting in fuel price rises that have also pushed up food prices. Field fires, affecting Syrian harvests, have also negatively contributed to the availability of food. All in all, the economic situation has contributed vastly to food insecurity in Syria. The arrival of COVID-19, and subsequent containment measures, have both negatively affected the economy and access to food.

Livelihoods, Food security, and Economic Resilience

As a result of the conflict and compounding factors, the situation for smallholder farmers and small agri-based businesses was precarious at best. Local agricultural markets in northern Syria for example lacked self-administration support and protection, had difficult or no access to loans and subsidized inputs, were tied to the fluctuations of the exchange rate, consisted of fragile business networks, lacked proper quality control systems, and faced challenges associated with climate and weather changes. There were also challenges in the infrastructure and support system, with, for example, sustained increases of transportation costs, major disruptions of road infrastructure, difficult and expensive access to electricity, risks associated with local refined fuel and expensive imported fuel, major disruption of credit-based trade, no access to banking and financial services, and challenges of access and ability to afford the associated cost of storage and cold chain.

Despite all the challenges and adverse effects of the Syrian conflict on the country’s economic, livelihoods and food security, a significant opportunity for recovery still remains. Restoring the agriculture sector through medium to long term and well-targeted strategy is key to ease the vicious cycle of poverty and improve stability and socioeconomic security.

Sources

1. Humanitarian Needs Overview: Syrian Arab Republic 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, UNOCHA
2. SYRIA -Review on the impact of rising food prices (https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/WFP-0000113454/download/)
3. Impact of COVID-19 on food security and agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (http://www.fao.org/3/cb0197en/CB0197EN.pdf)
4. Fuel Study North Syria, Information Management Resource Center (IMRC) (https://immap.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/iMMAP-FSL-Cluster-Fuel-Study-Final-Report-2019.pdf)

Written in collaboration by Ahmad Alahmar, Reihshan Deen, Anuradha Dhanasekara