Areas cultivated with barley in Syria increase by more than 210 thousand hectares

Damascus, SANA- Engineer Abdel Moeen Qadmani, Director of Plant Production Department at the Ministry of Agriculture, said that the cultivation plan of the barley crop is nearing completion in most of the main areas of its cultivation and with a significant increase in comparison with the last season, especially in the countryside of Raqqa and Aleppo.

Qadmani told SANA that the increase in the areas cultivated with barley came as a result of the return of farmers to their areas after restoring security and stability, in addition to the increase in the amount of rainfalls as the implementation rate of the current season plan exceeded 90 percent.

He noted that the total area planted with barley reached up to 1,359,450 hectares till now in comparison with 1,138,185 hectares in the same period last season with an increase estimated at about 222 thousand hectares.

The increase in the areas cultivated with barley was distributed as follows: more than 115 hectares in Raqqa, 94 thousand hectares in Aleppo, 30 thousand hectares in Hasaka and 5 thousand hectares in Deir Ezzor while the areas planted with barley decreased in some areas such as Daraa and Quneitra.

Qadmani pointed out that the majority of cultivated areas are rainfed as they mainly depend on rains and their area reached more than 1,308,153 hectares out of ,143,5877 hectares which had been planned to be cultivated with barley, with a 91% implementation rate.

Hasaka province came in the first place with regard to the areas planted with barley as they reached up to 434 thousand hectares, then Aleppo with 367 thousand hectares, Raqqa with 225 thousand hectares and Hama province 127 thousand hectares.

Meanwhile, the irrigated areas reached 51,297 out of 63,989 hectares which were planned to be cultivated with barley with an execution rate estimated at 80 percent.

Hasaka came first with regard to the irrigated areas that have been planted with barley as they hit 19 thousand hectares, followed by Deir Ezzor, Hama and Raqqa respectively.

Ruaa al-Jazaeri