Funded by USAID, and in partnership with the North East Syria (NES) Food Security and Livelihoods Working Group, iMMAP published the Crop Monitoring and Food Security Situation Update of Northeast Syria.
The study assessed the overall impact of the water scarcity crisis on crop production in NES, which was further compounded by historically low and erratic rainfall in 2021.
Using the iMMAP Data Cube and ground-truthing, the report probed a number of factors related to northeast Syria’s agricultural capacity, including the overall vegetation coverage, total crop harvested or replanted crops, water scarcity and its effects on cropland cover changes, and threats to its food and livelihood security.
The iMMAP Data Cube is an open-source geospatial data management and analysis platform that utilizes earth observation data to assist the humanitarian and development sectors in addressing a plethora of challenges such as agricultural land cover changes, climate change, land degradation, vegetation anomalies, water pollution, and wildfires.
The study compared results between the summer and winter cropping seasons in 2020 and 2021 across governorates in NES, with the exception of Deir ez-Zor, where the 2017 and 2021 seasons were assessed due to conflict activity in 2020.
Through this study, several key findings were uncovered. Below are some of the most notable:
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Eighteen sub-districts within NES recorded an over 75% loss in harvested crop area.
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Crop failures and low wheat yields resulted in a massive reduction of wheat grain sold to the Self Administration of Northeast Syria (SANES) compared to 2020.
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Because of the increased price of agricultural inputs and deteriorating seed quality, poor irrigation agriculture was deemed a secondary concern among NES farmers.
To read and download the full report, please visit: https://immap.org/product/crop-monitoring-and-food-security-situation-update-in-north-east-syria/