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Crops

Syrian agriculture faces US$16 billion bill from conflict

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Rome | Thomson Reuters Foundation — Syria’s six-year conflict has caused at least US$16 billion in damage to agriculture — about a third of the country’s GDP — a U.N. agency said on Monday, calling for more funds to salvage local food production as millions go hungry. Fighting has led to extensive crop and livestock […] Read more
Temple ruins at Palmyra in central Syria. (CIA.gov)
Crops

Food production in Syria reported at all-time low

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Geneva | Reuters — Food production has dropped to an all-time low in Syria where millions of hungry civilians are struggling through their sixth winter in a war zone, United Nations agencies said Tuesday. Many farmers have had to abandon their land, unable to afford the soaring cost of seeds, fertilizers and tractor fuel, the […] Read more
(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)
Crops, Markets

Russia-Turkey tensions stymie new wheat deals

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Reuters — Political tension between Russia and Turkey has put a brake on new wheat deals between the two countries and created uncertainty about existing agreements, traders said Thursday. Relations between Russia, one of the world’s largest wheat exporters, and Turkey, the largest buyer of Russian wheat, have quickly deteriorated after Turkey shot down a […] Read more
(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)
Crops

Syria needs more wheat, despite healthy harvest

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Abu Dhabi | Reuters — Syrian farmers enduring a fifth year of civil war have sold less wheat to the state than last year despite a better harvest and higher offer price, leaving a large shortfall to be made up with imports complicated by western sanctions. President Bashar al-Assad’s government has lost control over many […] Read more
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, built in Norway in 2008, is the world’s largest secure seed storage site. (Matthias Heyde photo courtesy Government of Norway via Flickr)
Crops

Syrian war spurs first withdrawal from doomsday seed vault

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Oslo | Reuters –– Syria’s civil war has prompted the first withdrawal of seeds from a “doomsday” vault built in an Arctic mountainside to safeguard global food supplies, officials said Monday. The seeds, including samples of wheat, barley and grasses suited to dry regions, have been requested by researchers elsewhere in the Middle East to […] Read more
Crops

Fighters target vital water facilities across Middle East

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Geneva | Reuters –– Fighters are increasingly targetting water and sanitation facilities across the Middle East, exacerbating severe shortages for agriculture and households, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Wednesday. Consumption of water in the volatile region with rising populations was already at unsustainable levels in many areas hit by record-low […] Read more

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