A farming country that stopped being able to feed itself

Before 2011, agriculture anchored the Syrian economy: wheat and barley from the north-east, orchards and vegetables along the coast and in the west, sheep and cattle across the steppe. Farming was not a sector so much as the country’s social safety net , the thing families fell back on when everything else failed.

That safety net has frayed. Food production has fallen to among its lowest levels on record, with wheat output a fraction of pre-conflict volumes and the national herd down by roughly a third to a half (ReliefWeb/FAO). Irrigation canals, pumping stations and rural electricity networks were destroyed or left unmaintained; fuel and fertiliser costs multiplied; and in early 2025 rainfall ran roughly 45% below average in the worst drought in decades (FAO).

Since late 2024, political transition has opened a window: displaced families are returning to villages, and a new National Agriculture Strategy 2026–2030 places farming at the centre of Syria’s recovery (FAO). But returnees come home to fields that need water, herds that need restocking, and markets that barely function. Recovery is now a question of rebuilding productive capacity fast enough to meet the return.