Agricultural Livelihoods and Food Security Impact Assessment and Response Plan for the Syria Crisis in the Neighbouring Countries of Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey

In February 2013, the Regional Office for the Near East and North Africa and the Emergency and Rehabilitation Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) undertook a “comprehensive analysis of the impact of the Syria crisis on the agriculture sector, agricultural-based livelihoods, and the food and nutrition security in the Near East Region and, in particular, its influence on markets and trade routes, restrictions of imports and export flows, cross-border agricultural commodity/input supply flow, prices and livelihoods”.

The main output of the analysis is a comprehensive document that: (i) identifies the major impacts of the Syria crisis on the agriculture sector, and on the food and nutrition security of neighbouring countries (i.e. Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey); and (ii) presents the immediate and medium-term needs related to food and nutrition security and agricultural-based livelihoods of displaced people, returnees, host communities and other vulnerable groups in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey through the development of regional and national response plans for the crop and livestock subsectors.

As of 1 March 2013, there were an estimated 1.1 million Syrian refugees registered or waiting to be registered in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. This number does not include people who are not registered, Syrian seasonal workers who remain in Lebanon (estimated at 250 000–300 000 people), Lebanese and Iraqi returnees (estimated at 30 000 and 50 000 people, respectively) and Palestinian Syrians (an estimated 25 000–50 000 people). The actual number of people who have fled Syria to these neighbouring countries is thus significantly higher and well in excess of 1.7 million.