Olive yields fell across Syria this year amid the worst drought in 60 years. In southern Daraa province, the harvest was 68 percent lower than in 2024, and 86 percent lower than in 2011.
Syria’s worst drought in decades has wiped out rain-fed crops and diminished yields across the country, devastating farmers and raising the risk of food shortages.
A sharp decrease in the wheat price set by the AANES sparked protests and has left northeastern Syria’s farmers questioning the economic viability of cultivating their land next season.
Since late 2023, the Syrian regime has been waging a drone war in northwestern Syria. As civilians in areas near frontlines are targeted, the threat of attacks keeps farmers from their land, destroying livelihoods and threatening the area’s food security.
Farmers in northeastern Syria are reducing the amount of land they cultivate or relying on the rain for irrigation as weak fuel subsidies and high costs make farming increasingly unprofitable.
Home to the wild ancestors of our most important crops, Syria once hosted one of the world’s biggest seed banks and grew several native varieties of wheat. But this collapsed during the war, and Syrians are now struggling to find good-quality seeds. How did the country lose its seed treasure, and with it, a wealth of genetic resources for humanity?
Wheat farmers in northwestern Syria reaped a “good” harvest this year, but not enough to fully sustain the 4 million people living in the area.
Since 2020, the Damascus government has held public auctions for land owned by displaced people. In Hama, a recent move to prioritize relatives in investment auctions threatens to foment family conflicts and further tear Syria’s social fabric.
An exceptionally hard frost swept across northwestern Syria last month. In its wake, hard-pressed farmers in Idlib are struggling to recoup their losses and replant their fields.
A photo shows entirely burned wheat fields as a result of the regime's bombing of opposition-held areas in al-Ghab plain in the western countryside of Hama province
