Hama-SANA

The areas planted with cotton crop in safe lands under the supervision of the work of the General Authority for the Management and Development of the Forest in Hama Governorate reached 140 hectares of the total plan scheduled for the current season, which amounted to 350 hectares, according to the director of plant wealth in the authority, Engineer Wafik Zarrouf.

Zarrouf explained in a statement to SANA correspondent that the decrease in cotton cultivation areas this season is due to the high costs of production inputs, the lack of sufficient irrigation sources, and the resort of farmers to growing alternative crops that are less expensive and more profitable, such as cereals.

Zarrouf pointed out that these areas are few and are not commensurate with the reality of growing the crop in the Al-Ghab region before the war years, noting that the Water Budget Committee in the province decided to cancel the summer agricultural plan for crops irrigated from government irrigation networks, most notably cotton and tobacco in the region, due to the lack of irrigation water, which led to the reduction of the planned plan.

He added that the process of expanding the cultivation of this strategic crop in the Al-Ghab region requires taking several encouraging decisions for farmers, most notably reducing the prices of production inputs and raising the price of receiving the crop.

In turn, a number of cotton farmers in the Al-Ghab region talked about the reasons for the decline in the cultivation of this strategic crop, which has become famous for it over the decades of the Al-Ghab region, says farmer Samir Abbas: Wheat, barley, medicinal and aromatic plants have become the preferred choice for farmers instead of cotton due to the high production costs of seeds, fertilizers, labor and fuel, and the lack of sufficient quantities of irrigation water.

Farmers Youssef Deeb and Suhail Ahmed called for reducing the prices of production inputs, or securing them from agricultural banks before the planting date in installments, and raising the prices of buying cotton from farmers.

Cotton cultivation in the Al-Ghab region is concentrated in Ain al-Krum, Salhab, Hawrat Amorin, Asharneh, Nahr al-Bared and al-Suqaylabiya.

Salem Alhussain

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