Reports | 25 05 2020
Farmer Abu Yusuf has been unable to tend to his land in the city Mare' in the Aleppo countryside, because it happens to fall on the frontline between the Free Syrian Army [FSA] and the Islamic state [ISIS].
Daily clashes have denied him from even being able to bring out his agricultural tools, so as to resume his work on another land, as he tells Rozana.
Along the 60 kilometers from the Turkish north stretching all the way to the city of Aleppo, large swaths of land estimated at 7 thousand hectares of fertile agricultural land, have receded and today become largely fallow.
Abu Yassin, from Mare' as well, also lost his only source of livelihood because of occurences on the ground, and is no longer able to work.
Abu Yassin tells Rozana: "I used to working for a certain percentage as an agricultural laborer. This work was my only livelihood; but I can no longer today even go to the field to work. Even though I am used to borrow each year, this year, the debt has accumulated, as I lost my work."
Mare's production of its chief crops of potatoes and onions, used to make up an estmiated quarter of the Syrian national output in previous years. But with the city becoming a line of confrontation with ISIS, farmers have become confined to specific types of agricultural crops that do not require constant maintenance; but are, rather, dependent on seasonal rainfall—such as wheat and barley.
Farmers are demanding the Ministry of Agriculture in the Syrian interim government for compensation for the last year, as well as to find solutions for the coming year. They are still to receive a response.
Listen to this story in Arabic HERE