Cotton cultivation in Syria improving…more than 9000 hectares have been planted 

After the cotton cultivation decreased significantly during the past years, farmers now are working on cultivating cotton in their lands in response to implementing the seasonal plan to cultivate the summer strategic crop in the various areas of agricultural stability in which there are stable water resources to insure necessary irrigation for the crop. This cultivation process is synchronized by the efforts of the concerned authorities to secure the needs of the textile industry sector of cotton. 

“The total areas planted with cotton to date amounted to 9038 hectares out of the planned area of 14,752 hectares, with an implementation rate of 62 percent, indicating that the cultivation process continues as water resources have been taken into consideration.”  Engineer Ahmed Hamidi, head of the Field Crops Department at the Plant Production Directorate at the Ministry of Agriculture stated. 

While Al Hassakeh city came first with 6135 hectares , regarding the distribution of cotton cultivation then came Dier Al Zorr city with 1500 hectares , following Al-Raqqa city with 1000 hectares , while the remaining invested areas were distributed in the governorates of Aleppo and Damscus countryside which returned recently to cotton cultivation after a period of non- cultivation for the crop. 

As The head of the Damascus Rural Farmers Union, Ziyad Khaled, explained the resurrection of cotton planting this season, after it stopped for several years in Damascus countryside, whereas it was licensed to cultivate 1,000 dunums this season, pointing out the importance to encourage farmers to increase the areas invested with cotton, be it an important and strategic crop, especially by providing seeds and fuel in sufficient quantities. 

Besides a number of farmers from Al-Ghab region expressed about the difficulties that led to the significant decline in the cultivation of this crop , of which at the top of it is the high production costs of seeds , fertilizers , labor forces , fuel and the lack of needed irrigation water. 

Leen Al-Salman