In northern Syria, war and repeated droughts have gotten the better of Omar Abdel Fattah, a farmer who gave up his fields to pursue work that would allow him to support his family.
“I decided to work as an employee to support my family and provide my children with an education,” says this 50-year-old man with a weathered face.
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In his village of Jaabar al-Saghir, near the city of Tabqa, on the banks of the Euphrates, which dries up every year, he shows off his wheat or cotton fields, which he now leases to another farmer.
“I can no longer bear the costs of farming or draw water from the Euphrates to irrigate the land,” adds the father of eight children.
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“Seeing someone else farm my land breaks my heart,” he admits.
Mr. Abdel Fattah is now employed at a water pumping station for the Kurdistan Autonomous Administration, which administers large areas in northeastern Syria. He receives a monthly salary of around $70.
“Some of my relatives have emigrated, others have rented their land because the living conditions are very difficult,” he explains.
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“Low profits”
The civil war in Syria, sparked by the suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations in 2011, has left more than half a million dead and divided the country into zones of influence.
In the dry plains around Tabqa and Raqqa, most of the fields are deserted. In places you can see a few farmers and workers harvesting potatoes and corn.
Desertification, reduced rainfall, drying up of rivers and extreme temperatures: the manifestations of climate change are omnipresent in the region.
According to Suhair Zaqout, spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross for Syria, agricultural production in the country has fallen by around 50% in the last decade as a result.
Jassem al-Rached, a 55-year-old farmer from the village of Qahtaniya near Raqqa, is now alone in cultivating his land, whereas in the past his seven children helped him.
“Two of them emigrated to Europe, two more became cattle traders and the last three joined the police and Kurdish forces,” he said.
“Agriculture was my only source of income for 30 years,” but it was “no longer profitable because of the drought (…),” he explains.
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According to a World Weather Attribution (WWA) study published in November that analyzes the connection between weather factors and climate change, high temperatures resulting from climate change have “increased the likelihood of drought in Syria by 25 times.”
Syria is one of the countries most affected by climate change, yet receives the least funding to address climate change.
In front of his now dry land near the Kurdish city of Qamichli, Farouk Mohamed also says that he has decided to “work for the autonomous administration to make ends meet”.
“The region relies on rainwater. In addition to rising fuel prices, years of drought have also caused problems for farmers,” explains the 40-year-old.
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“Desertification”
Climate change is not the only problem. Syria, devastated by civil war, is also suffering from a crushing economic crisis marked by fuel shortages and hours of electricity rationing.
Farmers are having difficulty irrigating their fields and purchasing the necessary fertilizers.
“Agriculture is in decline due to high costs, fertilizer prices, low rainfall and years of drought,” says Laïla Saroukhan, co-chair of the Kurdish Autonomous Administration’s Agriculture and Irrigation Authority.
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“Climate change is affecting rainfall rates and desertification is spreading in northeastern Syria,” she said, lamenting “dangerous indicators for agriculture.”
Like many residents of northeast Syria, 56-year-old Adnan Sabri's children left farming to join the Kurdish security forces, the Asayish, in order to have a steady income.
In addition to the lack of water, “our fields can be bombed at any time,” he says. “A job is more stable.”
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