The Home Gardens and Food Processing Project reaches thousands of rural families in 8 governorates

The Home Gardening and Food Processing Project has reached thousands of rural families in the last three years. It expanded its activities and projects such as poultry- raising and fish farming to eight Syrian governorates.

The Project launched its first phase  in 2017 with the aim of increasing the income of rural families, supporting their livelihoods in their villages, and achieving food security and self-sufficiency.

The Chairman  of the Federation of Agricultural Chambers, Mohamed Keshtu, said that the Project is being  implemented  in cooperation  with the Ministry of Agriculture, the Federation of Agricultural Chambers and the World Food Program( WFP).

Kashtu said  that the Project in its first year presented seedlings, seeds, fertilizers and pesticides to  3302 home gardens, each garden 500 square meters.

In the second phase of the Project, the number of beneficiaries increased to 3 thousand families in Tartous, Quneitra, Sweida, Damascus Countryside, Homs, Hama, Lattakia.

Kashtu said that in 2018-2019 the number of beneficiaries increased to 10 thousand families benefiting from grants and 40 new manufacturing units for 200 families, including Aleppo.

In the next stage between 2019-2020, the Project introduced 7,700 new gardens and a new grant component was introduced, which is home  poultry raising, where 1,850 poultry grants were distributed at a rate of 20 layer chickens ، 200 kilograms of feed, and two water containers to each family.

Kashtu stated that the number of granted manufacturing units rose in the fourth stage to 97 units and the number of beneficiaries reached 485 families and a new component was added – home  fish farming  and vegetable gardens to take advantage of the water of fish farming in the irrigation of gardens.

He said that the total number of manufacturing units provided 143 integrated units in 8 governorates of Sweida,  Quneitra, Daraa, Damascus Countryside, Tartous, Lattakia, Homs, Hama, and Aleppo with 715 benefited families.

Kashtu added that the idea of manufacturing units was launched by linking home gardens with these units by manufacturing garden products and achieving added value to create an integrated production loop. 

Kashtu said that all the products of the manufacturing units are sold as soon as they are produced.

O. al-Mohammad