Historic drought, wheat shortage to test Syria's new leadership

STORY: Syria is facing a potential food crisis after suffering its worst drought in 36 years.Abbas Othman is a wheat farmer from Syria's breadbasket region in the northeast Hasaka province.He says he didn't harvest a single grain.“This year, we planted six hectares and we harvested nothing. The crops didn't grow, and even the shepherds didn't benefit from the land. We incurred huge losses, including farm wages, seeds and fertilizer. We lost all of these costs.”The lack of rain slashed wheat production by around 40%.It puts the squeeze on Syria's cash-strapped government, which has been unable to secure large-scale purchases. Around three million Syrians could face severe hunger, the United Nations' World Food Programme told Reuters, without giving a timeframe.While more than half of the 25.6 million population is currently food insecure, it added.In a June report, the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that Syria faced a wheat shortfall of around 3 million U.S. tons this year. That's enough to feed around 16 million people for a year.Internal Trade Official for the coastal Tartous and Latakia regions, Abdulwahab al-Safar, says just 181,000 tons have been imported since the fall of long-time ruler Bashar al-Assad in December."Local production does not cover more than 2 to 3% of local demand, especially after a year of drought that hit Syria - never in Syria's history has there been a year like this one - and therefore it can't be relied upon, especially since the main food in Syria is bread."The situation poses a challenge to President Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose government is seeking to rebuild Syria after its 14-year civil war.Wheat is Syria's most important crop and supports a state-subsidized bread program - a vital part of everyday life.The new government has purchased about 412,000 tons of wheat from local farmers this season, a Syrian government official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.That is around half of last year's volume.The government needs to import around 2.8 million tons this year, the source added.Yet Sharaa's government has been slow to mobilize international support for big grain purchases.