High prices of feed | Animal farming in Syria is hard hit

Animal farming in most of the Syrian regions has been hit hard amid hiking prices of feed and monopoly of fodder by merchants after halt of its exportation for Syria. SOHR activists have reported that one ton of barley varied from 360 to 480 US dollars in Idlib province and its countryside in short period, while one kilogram of straw reached from four to seven Turkish Liras.

A man, who works in raising livestock, told SOHR that drought and lack of rains and smuggling fodder and medicine to the areas under control of the regime forces have forced some people to sell their animals with very cheap prices because they can not secure the expenses.

On the other hand, a man works in livestock trading in Al-Raqqah province that is under control of the “Autonomous Administration”, has expressed his discontent due to the increasing prices, adding that the people working in raising animals are the most harmed people because working animal farming is their only source of income.

The people working in raising animals are expecting a real crisis in the region due to the acute shortage of fodders, especially straw.

They called for reopening local laboratories in Syria as a substitute for securing the feed in cheap prices and better quality. Meanwhile, the manger of the animal production department in the regime-held Agricultural Ministry announced that animal farming sector in Syria lost 40 to 50 percent of the number of animals due to the increasing prices of the feed.

It is worth noting that after the prices of the fodder increased and the animal farming deteriorated, the regime-run General Institution for Fodder launched a bid for buying 100 ton of corn, barley, soybeans as follows: 40 tons of yellow corn, 40 tons of barley, 20 ton of soybeans after the importation of fodder from Russia and Ukraine has stopped due to the ongoing war.