The UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) launched a five-year strategy to deal with the negative effects of the Syrian crisis on the food security and livelihoods of people in Syria and neighbouring countries this week. The strategy, budgeted at $280 million, aims to help the five neighbouring countries that receive Syrian refugees, Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Jordan, together with Syria itself, to cope with the effects of the 2.6 million Syrians displaced by the three-year civil strife in the country. Assessments carried out by the FAO indicate that threats to food security, nutrition, agriculture and livelihoods in Syria and its neighbours are severe and are growing steadily in the affected sub-region. The FAO and the World Food Programme (WFP) estimate that 6.3 million people inside Syria are in critical need of food and agricultural assistance, an increase of more than 50 per cent since June 2013, because of severe food insecurity and malnutrition. Meanwhile, things are getting worse in neighbouring countries hosting Syrian refugees. “With most of Syria's 2.6 million refugees living outside of camps, host communities face intense competition for resources such as land, water and income opportunities, while the costs for housing, food and other commodities soar,” a FAO note issued last week said. Faced with the possibility of a worsening situation in the six countries, UN agencies have called on donors for $6.5 billion in funds through 2014, the biggest amount so far requested for a single humanitarian emergency. The newly launched FAO strategy is based on a resilience-based approach to meeting immediate needs while helping in the development of the affected populations. According to the FAO note, the strategy, called Resilient Livelihoods for Agriculture and Food and Nutrition Security in Areas affected by the Syria Crisis, addresses the needs of main groups affected by the crisis, including internally displaced persons and affected populations, refugees, returnees, host communities and national and local authorities. In addition to plunging half of all Syrians into poverty and making nearly a third food insecure, the violence in Syria has destroyed fields and farming assets. The 2013 wheat harvest — projected at 2.4 million tons — fell 40 per cent short of that of an average year. The reduced harvest, combined with limited import capacity, has left the country unable to meet its consumption needs. According to Reuters last week, Syria is struggling to buy food commodities in the quantities it needs, as on top of the risks of trading with a country wracked by violence suppliers to Syria require licenses from US and European Union authorities, even for unrestricted humanitarian goods, creating extra red tape. There are also extra complications for large consignments, which require more sophisticated financing and greater associated risk, and these are driving down the size of trade. This is coupled with the risk of non-payment, given the complex mechanisms needed to get round the sanctions on Syria's banking system. Livestock and poultry are uncounted victims of the crisis, with up to one-quarter of the country's cattle and over one-third of its sheep being lost in the conflict, while poultry production has decreased by over 50 per cent since the crisis began, the FAO statement noted. The scarcity of food has pushed up prices, including a twofold increase in the real price of wheat flour between 2011 and mid-2013. According to the FAO, the effect has been to raise poverty rates to 60 per cent of the population of Syria — twice the rate of 2010 — with one-third experiencing extreme poverty. About 2.3 million jobs have been lost since the start of the crisis, mainly in the agriculture and transportation sectors. Neighbouring countries, most already having their own economic and political woes, have also been affected in their economic, social and human development. The growing number of Syrian refugees is threatening food security in the sub-region, particularly in eastern and northern Lebanon, northern Jordan, southern Turkey, northern Iraq and urban Egypt. The significant drop in food production in Syria is negatively affecting food availability in the rest of the sub-region, raising the need for food imports and thus increasing exposure to shocks in world and regional food supplies and prices. Nearly two-thirds of Syrian refugees live outside of camps among local communities where food and water supplies of questionable quality leave vulnerable populations highly exposed to outbreaks of food and water-borne diseases. Small farmers in rural towns and villages where agriculture is the primary source of livelihoods have been suffering significant losses in farm income and in the availability of irrigation water as a result. Added to this, the FAO said, has been an up to fivefold increase in the cost of agricultural inputs, loss of informal cross-border trading opportunities (“smuggling”) in previously subsidised Syrian agricultural inputs, reduced marketing opportunities for traditional export crops and a corresponding 20 to 40 per cent net decrease in farm-gate prices. Farm wages have decreased by 25 to 30 per cent with the increasing availability of labour. Moreover, the lack of sanitary services in Syria has increased the uncontrolled movement of unvaccinated and untreated livestock, seeds and planting materials into Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon. Localised outbreaks of significant livestock diseases have been reported in all these countries. The increased need for firewood and water for domestic and irrigation use is further accelerating the degradation of water and forest resources, particularly affecting rural communities in northern Lebanon and irrigated farms in Mafraq, Jordan, the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon and the Kurdistan region of Iraq, the FAO said.
