Syria: Veteran farmers forced to look for city jobs
Rising costs and unsuitable climate in Syria has caused farmers to ditch their trade and go into more stable jobs, according to AFP.
Amidst an ongoing, decade-long civil war and an economic crisis, many have struggled to keep a fixed-term job.
Turmoil worsened in 2011 when the war originally broke out due to veteran President, Bashar Al-Assad’s violent crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations as back then the strongman faced a serious authority challenge.
For farmer Omar Abdel-Fattah, 50, the economic crisis has meant that he has had to sell his precious farmland, instead opting to look for a “proper” job.
The farmer has been cherishing his lifestyle for an excess of three decades, growing wheat, cotton and vegetables in Jaabar al-Saghir, in the city of Raqqa, situated in the country’s northeast.
Notably, the city was captured by the opposition in 2013 and then by prominent terror organisation ISIS a year later. Raqqa for nearly a decade has been considered as an Islamic State stronghold and is regularly subject to airstrikes from Assad’s government as well as other foreign powerhouses.
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With regards to his farm, Abdel-Fattah, who has eight children, said, “It breaks my heart to see someone else working my land,” and commented that he had to ensure that his children were provided with adequate education therefore he had no choice but to abandon agriculture because he can “no longer keep up with the costs of farming”.
In the town of Al-Qahtaniyah (Raqqa), 55-year old Jassem al-Rashed said that farming was his only source of income for thirty years, but it has now become a “loss”.
He talked about how his children helped him on his farmland but now that they have all grown up, they have went into more traditional jobs.
“Two of my children work in the livestock trade, and two others left for Europe, while three others joined the traffic police and security forces,”
He also cited successive droughts as another factor for his children giving up farming.
Adnan Ibrahim, another farmer in the Raqqa province, also discussed the difficulties agriculture is facing due to the harsh climate and ongoing war.
Ibrahim said, “We (farmers) are afraid of cultivating our land, war could break out at any time and warplanes could bomb our lands. So having a steady job is better.”
AFP
