(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Qatar Red Crescent (QRC) has launched a development project to enhance the 2015 wheat season crop in northern Syria, as part of food security projects to reactivate the stalled economy.
With $245,000 (QR890,881) funding from QRC, the project is designed to support the growing of wheat as an important crop, trying to increase its production to acceptable levels.
This can alleviate the everyday suffering of the Syrian people, who can no longer rely on the insufficient assistance from the international community, which leaves them idle and dependent on foreign aid, QRC said in a statement.
The project aims to encourage farmers to cultivate their abandoned lands, increase wheat production in target regions as a strategic food item, create work opportunities for jobless agricultural labourers, end wheat monopoly in farming areas, and lighten the burden on humanitarian organisations by shifting from relief to resource development.
The project is launched through QRC's representative office in Turkey, in cooperation with International Humanitarian Relief (IHR) and Green Plan.
The wheat will be used to produce flour for bread, lowering the production costs and making its prices affordable for Syrians.
Talks were held with World Food Programme to purchase the wheat harvest instead of importing food from Turkey and other countries.
Serving 108 farmers in northern Aleppo and Idlib countryside areas, the project is expected to produce 1,146 tonnes of wheat of which 429.8 tonnes will be retained by farmers for personal use, 358.1 tonnes for General Organisation for Seed Multiplication and 358.1 tonnes will be kept by QRC to support the 2016 wheat season.
The crop is expected to be collected by next month-end.
A total of 2,865 donums will be cultivated, each costing $75-130 and yielding 400 kg of wheat or 390 bread package. One package serves a five-person family.
The project is part of work by QRC's office in Turkey to execute relief and development projects in Syria to help communities survive the crisis, which has weighed negatively on all aspects of their lives.
It also help QRC utilise its legal capacity as a globally recognised humanitarian organisation whose vehicles, facilities and staff are protected under international laws and conventions.
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