Enhancing Food Security of Dar’a and Quneitra Governorates

Wheat crop production in Syria is of strategic importance for ensuring that food security needs of the population are met. Prior to 2010, the country required a minimum of 3.5 million MT of wheat production to ensure nation-wide food security.

Except during drought years, Syria was unique among nations of the Middle East in reaching self-sufficiency levels of wheat production during the past couple of decades. Available crop production records indicate that on a good rain-year yields have reached upward of 4 million MT.  However, a series of consecutive drought years, up to the current conflict, led to the present crises of wheat shortage throughout the country.

In order to address food insecurity in Dar’a and Quneitra Governorates, this project seeks to strengthen and enhance the capacity of the implementing entity, the Syria Public Establishment of Grains (SPEG), and contribute to food security in liberated areas by implementing following interventions:

• Procurement and delivery of 8,000 tons of imported, soft-grain wheat to be mixed and milled with local hard wheat to produce the flour “formula” required for the baking of Syrian bread;
• Procurement and delivery of additional 750,000 hessian sacks and 450,000 polypropylene flour sacks; PE sheets and HDPE covers (tarpaulins); safety clothing & protection gear, and fire extinguishers to ensure mill workers’ safety.

The project complements three other SRTF interventions in the south of the country through which the IE was able to set up milling plants and proper wheat storage facilities.  The “Support to the Food Security Sector in Syria – Storage and Milling Support to the SIG’s Wheat Programme” project provided and installed one milling plant and equipment for three laboratories to analyse wheat (humidity, weight/liter, scales, samplers, protein content etc.) for commercial purposes.

The “Procurement of Hessian Sacks for Wheat Crop Storage” project sought to facilitate wheat storage of wheat, minimizing post-harvest losses, by means of distributing Hessian sacks to local farmers. The “Enhancing Food Security of Syria through Support to the National Wheat Programme” project imported large quantities of wheat and delivered them to distribution canters in order to secure food availability for local communities in the project target areas.

The project will also strengthen the SPEG’s operational capacity to sustain and strengthen food security within the liberated areas; maintain availability of bread and stabilize bread prices; and stabilize the availability of flour at local bakeries. While more than 170,000 people will directly benefit from the project, the indirect beneficiaries are expected to exceed 1.5 million of the inhabitants of the two governorates.

For further information on the project, please see:

The SRTF launches its largest intervention to boost food security in the south of Syria

The SRTF Delivers Polyethylene Sheets and Straps for a Food Security Project in Dar’a and Quneitra Governorates