Farm to Bread – Dar’a - World Food Programme (WFP), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Prior to the Syrian crisis, Dar’a covered a majority of the Syrian needs for wheat and was held as one of the bread baskets of Syria, with a well-functioning  and self-reliant wheat value chain. Despite the reconciliation in 2018, Dar’a continues to face insecurity with several incidents reported almost daily, with humanitarian needs increasing at a fast phase.  

Currently, almost 1.2 million people are estimated to live in Dar’a governorate with over a third of the current population having spontaneously returned from either internal displacement or from neighboring countries. Nearly 60 percent of the population are deemed food insecure which is a sharp increase from 43 percent in 2020. Like other essential infrastructure, food value chains have been systematically targeted in conflict, decimating the governorate’s self-sufficiency. WFP referential basket in Dar’a’a costs around 181,263 SYP in April, 258 percent higher than one year ago. In the same month, the cost of public bread (subsidized) was recorded at 131 SYP for 1.1kg bundle, which was the third highest price across all governorates. The total need for bread production in Dar’a is 357 tonnes on a daily basis but the actual daily production is: 317.1 tons. In addition, since the onset of the conflict, access to bread has been significantly reduced following major structural damages to private and public bakeries. As well, bakeries that are functioning in food insecure areas often do not have the capacity to handle the demand, meaning people can be subject to long waits and/or unavailability.

Agriculture has suffered from the destruction of infrastructure required to irrigate agricultural land and high prices of production inputs. This was further aggravated by the lack of rainfalls.   The rainy season experienced great disturbance in terms of the temporal and spatial distribution of precipitation. According to FAO seed security assessment, seed availability of major crops is a serious challenge for Syrian smallholder farmers in the past 10 years due to the damage to the agricultural system caused the conflict. FAO also notes that at least 20% of farmers are sowing less seed than they normally would because they cannot afford seed or other inputs including water for irrigation or agrochemicals. 

The crisis has led to significant damages in electricity infrastructure in Dar’a governorate, power grids were seriously damaged. Currently, Dar’a is suffering from frequent power outages, that led to electrical rationing measures and accordingly to the decline in the quantities of electricity allocated to drinking water wells, which reflected negatively on living condition of inhabitant.

Given this backdrop, within the scope of Humanitarian Response Plan and mandates, WFP, FAO and UNDP will work jointly to make concrete contribution to the restoration of the bread value chain in Dar’a, thus strengthening access to a key and vital service (bread) and promote social cohesion. Each of the agency will take specific responsibilities towards the value chain restoration and will implement these activities in operational, technical and strategic collaboration with each other through an operational working group (see coordination section). WFP will improve the network of bakeries for increased production capacity of bread, FAO will increase production of wheat for improved availability of wheat flour and UNDP will provide access to alternative energy for agriculture and street lights around bakeries job creation and conflict resolution. Previous interventions in Dar’a have strongly demonstrated that community driven projects leading to access to key service provides a common sense of purpose and eases the tensions in competing for much needed resources. Thus, these interventions will contribute to social cohesion – a much needed element in the governorate.