Seed multiplication for agriculture recovery in Syria

FAO and the Department of International Development (DFID) have put together three-year strategic programme that aims at supporting emergency needs, early recovery and longer-term resilience in Syria's agriculture sector. A field day was organized by FAO and International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), to explain to farmer a new agriculture practice for seed multiplication.

FAO has taken the first steps towards increasing farmer access to quality early generation seed, by contracting a number of pioneer farmers in Aleppo governorate. The farmers have multiplied bread wheat, durum wheat, barley, chickpea and lentil varieties seeds. The pioneer farmers have received specific training and special supervision from experts on seed multiplication to generate good results out of this initial intervention.

They followed a reduced planting recommendation – with 65 Kg of seeds/hectare – in order to produce better, stronger and supplemental quantity of wheat seeds. The pioneer farmers were also supported to take steps to ensure that the crop was not affected by pest and diseases, and was not mixed with weed or extraneous varieties, in addition to timely use of irrigation for good quality production.