Building Local Resilience in Syria (BLRS) – Short-term Impacts of FAO’s Agricultural Support under BLRS phase 1

Background:

Syrian farmers continue to face pressures from conflict legacies, economic instability, climate shocks, and the resultant food insecurity. Disrupted markets, damaged infrastructure and shifts in governance and policies, including the suspension of wheat subsidies over the past years, have constrained agricultural production and reduced farm profits. Prolonged hyperinflation and the overall weak Syrian Pound have severely reduced the purchasing power of households and farmers to buy food and agriculture inputs. The improvements in the exchange rate of the Syrian Pound against the US dollar after the governance transition at the end of 2024, decreased real prices, but also led to a margin squeeze (high input costs and low output prices). At the same time, recurrent drought episodes, where in 2025 Syria witnessed one of the most severe droughts in decades, have reduced agricultural capacity and productivity. All these factors led to increased poverty rates in Syria, limit farmers’ ability to invest, weaken productivity and livelihoods, strain food security, and increase reliance on harmful livelihood coping strategies.

ISDC conducted a portfolio of impact evaluations of the BLRS Phase 1 in coordination with FAO and SRI. This report presents the short-term findings of the impact evaluation of FAO’s agricultural activities that were implemented in Aleppo, Deir-Ez-Zor, Hama, Homs, and Rural Damascus, approximately 1.5 years after implementation began. More specifically, this impact evaluation assesses the average effects of participation in livestock and crop production Farmer Field Schools (hereafter denoted as Livestock FFS and Crops FFS, respectively, or FFS in general).

Impact Findings

• Food security: The programme’s contribution in terms of food security lies in improved food consumption and dietary diversity. From an average baseline FCS level of 57, already 15 points above the acceptable food security threshold, the programme raised FCS by 6.5% for beneficiary households compared to non-beneficiary households.
• Livestock production: Livestock keeping is common among surveyed households: at baseline 55% of households owned cattle, 36% owned sheep and 8% owned goats. Over the study period, the number of livestock heads has decreased for non-beneficiary farmers by 18% for cattle, 37% for sheep, and 53% for goats, pointing to clear destocking trends. However, cattle and sheep holdings of FAO beneficiary households only decreased by 8% and 14%, respectively, and herd size of goats increased by 35%.
• Engagement in agricultural value chain activities and income-generation: At baseline, 59% of the households generated income from sales of unprocessed crops while 69% generated income from livestock sales. 3% or less engaged in each of the other value chain activities.