Damascus- The Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reclamation in the Syrian caretaker government, Muhammad Taha Al-Ahmad, did not hide his strong desire to reform and address many of the issues that constituted the basic reasons for the collapse of the agricultural sector in Syria during the era of the regime of the ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Minister Al-Ahmad says that he found a quasi-ministry called the Ministry of Agriculture, based on administrative ruin riddled with financial and functional corruption, which led the Syrian farmer to abandon agriculture and raising productive animals and leave his land to find for himself and his family another source of income that would relieve him of hunger.
Al-Ahmad, in his interview with Al-Jazeera Net, revealed the exclusion of a large number of employees working on the Ministry of Agriculture’s force, pointing to several devious methods that were the reason behind their employment, ruling out that the exclusion was for religious, sectarian, or regional goals.
Al-Ahmad confirmed that his administration has developed systematic plans that will achieve Syria’s self-sufficiency in agricultural crops, with wheat being its top priority within just one year, noting the need to realize that agricultural methods have changed and its tools have evolved, and this requires awareness and understanding of the new stage.
The Syrian Minister is fully aware of the difficulty of the task and its great challenges, especially the water ones, and he revealed his country’s desire to increase its share of the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers amid understandings and discussions with the Turkish side, which, he said, showed flexibility and understanding of this demand.
Al-Ahmad pledged to provide all support to farmers by reducing the prices of seeds and fertilizers, alleviating climate burdens, and allowing competition, which will give the farmer the ability to continue and produce great productivity. At the same time, he defended the decision to lift subsidies to farmers in exchange for liberalizing prices, considering it a correct decision for many reasons.
Below is the text of the dialogue:
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First, what is your current vision for reviving and advancing the agricultural sector in Syria?
The agricultural sector in Syria is large and diverse, and in order for this sector to rise, we must first convince the Syrian farmer to return to his land, as he is now far from the field of agriculture because he does not have the savings that would enable him to rebuild the infrastructure that he lost as a result of the war, and the encroachment of criminals affiliated with the Assad regime.” “The Fallen” and his army unlawfully seized agricultural crops, in addition to the poverty that the Syrian farmer suffered as a result of displacement or displacement.
We will focus greatly on the return of farmers and providing them with the necessary support so that they can cultivate their lands. We have communicated with the farmers, identified the most prominent problems they suffer from, and are now trying to find appropriate solutions for them, such as maintaining the infrastructure that was subjected to harm, demolition, vandalism, and theft during the previous years of war. Most importantly, governmental and private irrigation projects, because irrigated crops have a very significant contribution to increasing production.
We also seek to facilitate the entry of the most important modern technologies used in the agricultural sector from neighboring countries and other countries so that they can be used in order to achieve production efficiency.
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What are the most prominent challenges you face to achieve significant development in the Syrian agricultural sector?
The first challenge facing us is the financial challenge, as these development measures require billions of dollars. The second challenge is the economic sanctions that, if they remain applied to Syria, will hinder the entry of these technologies, and if they enter, they will enter at very high costs, which will increase the costs of agricultural production, as well as the agricultural methods previously used in The means of the “defunct” regime are old and invalid and need to be completely replaced.
Today we need modern agricultural policies, a lot of money, and advanced equipment.
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Do you think that sanctions on Syria could be lifted during the coming period and what are the factors that hinder their removal?
If we look at the reason for these sanctions, we will find that Bashar al-Assad was removed, and therefore these sanctions must be removed, but we do not know why international bodies continue to maintain them without any justification. Syria truly suffered what it suffered during the revolution, and before the revolution, from the practices of the Assad regime that We were deprived of many international privileges, most notably the European partnerships that severed their relationship with Damascus due to the unbalanced and arrogant policies of Assad, but now everything has changed and Syria’s policy has turned into a policy of openness to the whole world, and toe We call for the sanctions to be lifted as soon as possible.
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How will you confront the shortage of agricultural labor in Syria and what incentives will you provide to support this labor?
The amount of human resources available in Syria is very large, and most of them are unemployed, unproductive, or uninvested. Here, these huge numbers can be invested in agricultural work, in addition to the significant numbers of farmers who are already in Syria and just need support.
But in order for this human cadre to become qualified to work in the agricultural sector, he must be provided with a set of experiences and training courses to develop his skills in this sector, especially since the plan that we are pursuing is based on the use of modern agricultural techniques that require a type of highly qualified human labor, and therefore I believe that Training and development of cadres is the biggest incentive.
We will not work as the Ministry of Agriculture did during the Assad regime by providing support, whether material or in kind, to farmers, as this was one of the biggest doors to corruption, because the data that was relied upon in developing support plans is incorrect data.
Example: A breeder or farmer who has 10 heads of cows used to register with the Ministry of Agriculture’s data that he had 100 heads of cows. Then the corrupt people in the Ministry took the support provided in the name of 100 heads and gave the breeder crumbs, and sold the rest in free markets, thereby opening the doors of corruption to stealing and plundering money. General.
We will provide all support to farmers in a systematic and deliberate manner by reducing the prices of seeds and fertilizers, alleviating climate burdens, and allowing competition between companies and sectors, which will give the farmer the ability to continue and produce great productivity.
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Do you have plans to reformulate international agreements with neighboring countries regarding the main rivers in Syria and your water shares from them?
In light of the conditions of climate change and the long war that Syria has fought, we are facing major water challenges. We have three rivers in common with neighboring countries, which are the Euphrates River, the Tigris River, and the Orontes River, and Syria relies heavily on these three rivers for agriculture, irrigation, and drinking.
As a result, I had a meeting with the Turkish ambassador to Syria and we discussed this matter. We were informed of continuing meetings during the coming period with the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture to discuss reformulating the water agreements between Syria and Turkey.
Before that, I also spoke in previous meetings with representatives of the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture about this important topic, and they showed great willingness and understanding to reformulate these agreements so that Syria would guarantee access to its full real water share.
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What about Iraq?
Iraq is one of the countries that will have a major role in this field, but no contact has been made with them because diplomatic representation between us has not yet been completed.
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Do you think that Syria’s share of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers will increase after the reformulation of international water agreements?
Of course…we seek to increase Syria’s share of the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, especially since Turkey during the previous period built a group of dams on these two rivers, and now we have to re-examine the existing situation under the new state and the fall of the ousted Assad state.
We will provide all support to farmers in a systematic and deliberate manner by reducing the prices of seeds and fertilizers, alleviating climate burdens, and allowing competition.
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Do you have plans to implement modern rain seeding operations?
Yes, the rain enhancement project is very important to us, and we have actually submitted a new study that was sent to the specialized studies office in this regard so that it can be audited technically and financially, especially after the meteorological file was transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture.
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In your opinion, how much does Syria need to achieve self-sufficiency in basic commodities, especially wheat?
A year at most, for several reasons:
- We have increased the cultivated areas in all of Syria during the past period.
- Eliminating restrictions that hindered farmers’ work, such as the insane rise in seed and fertilizer prices.
- Dealing with farmers through futures contracts, contrary to what the regime used to do, which required farmers to pay advances (cash) before obtaining seeds.
Syria needs 3 million tons of wheat annually in order to achieve self-sufficiency, and with the plans and studies we have developed, we are able, with God’s help, to achieve our food security from wheat and other agricultural crops in one year, on the condition that the eastern region (Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa) returns from the Syrian Democratic Forces. (SDF), and we are determined to return these areas with everything we have, and we will not accept any federalism or any other political or military form.
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Do you think that the decision to lift support for farmers in exchange for liberalizing prices is a correct decision and why?
Yes, certainly, it was a correct decision. The reason is that the support was one of the gateways to corruption and the lack of support reaching those who deserve it, and because some influential parties in the state control the distribution of these materials, which are considered almost free materials, as the support enabled the influential people in Assad’s state to sell the subsidized materials in the markets. At high prices and depriving farmers of them.
Removing subsidies and liberalizing prices will be accompanied by studying the prices of products that will be put on the market based on production costs, through:
- Protecting the local product by not allowing the entry of agricultural products from abroad if they are similar to local products.
- Reducing production costs by obtaining the best production supplies at the lowest prices.
- Eliminating the companies that previously controlled the agricultural sector in Syria.
Syria needs 3 million tons of wheat annually in order to achieve self-sufficiency
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When you were appointed Minister of Agriculture and began your daily work in this important ministry, how did you find the state of the ministry after the fall of the regime?
Complete institutional ruin, a quasi-ministry and not a ministry, old tools, dilapidated equipment, no clear methodology of work, and no scientific studies for development.
I will give you a small example of this devastation.
During one of my visits to one of the agricultural units, I found that it consisted of only 4 rooms, but it had a registered strength of 143 employees, while those who actually work were only 7 employees who came to conduct some correspondence, sign the mail, and leave.
There was also a previous project called the “Solar Project” to survey natural resources, which was greatly praised by the former workers. I was encouraged to go to this project and see where they had reached with the process of geographical surveying or surveying natural resources. Unfortunately, I saw that the tools they were working with were worn out, old, and almost not working at all. .
And there are many other examples that indicate the extent of the institutional devastation that the Ministry of Agriculture is experiencing during the Assad era.
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How did you deal with administrative reform within your ministry? Was any employee removed for political reasons?
The beginning of the first reform we undertook was amending the established structures because they were structures that “waste powers,” meaning that any defect that occurs in the agricultural sector, you cannot determine who caused this defect, and therefore we prepared a new structure with which we separated the powers through reformulation. The internal system governing these operations, whereby we have defined each party’s powers and duties that complement the other parties in a smooth and precise manner.
Then, the general directors of institutions and bodies, directors of administration, and sub-directors were changed, and their replacements were chosen on the basis of technical competence, regardless of religious, sectarian, or regional affiliation.
The directives I conveyed to all departments were that only those who were competent, ethical, and committed would survive.
As for the issue of exclusion, I will be frank with you. Yes, all workers who constituted slackness and functional redundancy in the Ministry of Agriculture were excluded, and a group of workers who were appointed through special competitions for the Arab Socialist Baath Party, and special competitions that were organized by the Assad regime’s army forces, were excluded. We discovered that 37% of them do not even have a ninth-grade certificate. This is administrative corruption that cannot be overlooked, as this is the money of the Syrian people.
Here, it must be noted that the exclusion was not for any religious, sectarian, or regional reasons, as some claim, but rather based on competence only.
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Where does Minister Muhammad Taha Al-Ahmad want to take the agricultural sector in Syria as an economic resource?
I want the agricultural sector to be the first economic resource in Syria and for the Syrian agricultural product to be the best in the region by all standards. We, with all the capabilities we have, are able to achieve this legitimate ambition for our honorable people.
