Emergency agriculture and food security assistance to crisis affected people in Syria The Syria crisis is now in its sixth year. The United Nations (UN) estimates that the number of people in need has now reached 13.5 million (more than half of the current population of Syria ). Some 6.5 million people  are estimated to be internally displaced and more than 4.4 million have sought refuge in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and North Africa as of the end of December 2015 . With the intensification of the crisis, food insecurity has drastically increased in all governorates of Syria. According to the Syria Strategic Response Plan 2015, an estimated 8.7 million people are considered food insecure. Findings from the Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission (CFSAM) undertaken by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) in May 2015 estimates that wheat production at country level has been 40 percent lower than the average production achieved prior to the crisis. Furthermore it indicated that the quality of diet and micronutrient intake in Syria has markedly deteriorated with many households substantially reducing the consumption of meat, dairy products, eggs, vegetables and fruits. 

Although much of its land is semi-arid, the Syrian Arab Republic was, until 2011, a country with a strong agricultural base and an important exporter of both crop and livestock products. Despite the poor rainfall and the conflict-related depredation of the last four years, crop and livestock production still plays a vital role in the country’s greatly diminished internal economy and in the survival of its population. Even though one-third of the Syrian population now depends on humanitarian food assistance, there are still significant areas where farmers are able to produce and supply food to the market. There is therefore the need and opportunity to support such production and the associated livelihoods of millions of rural families. Support provided to agricultural production will help alleviate the scarcity of basic food commodities and reduce dependency from imports and food aid. Agriculture plays a pivotal role in addressing many facets of the crisis. This includes protecting and restoring food security, employment, economic growth, natural resources and social cohesion. Considering the limited access to markets for both producers and consumers, the livelihoods constraints and the constantly decreasing purchasing power of the affected populations, it is important to continue to support households’ own food production to avoid further deterioration of the quality of their diets and their intake of nutrients. Support provided to crop production will help alleviate the scarcity of bread and the basic food for poor people, and reduce dependency on food aid and imports. Based on an estimated average of 2 000 kg of wheat harvested by each beneficiary farmer as a result of this assistance and considering the local cereal consumption per capita of 180 – 200 kg per year, each household of an average of six persons would consume a maximum of 1 200 kg of cereal per year and have a reserve of 800 kg which could be used as seed material for the next planting season and/or for other needs. Hay from wheat production would be used to feed animals during the winter period.
This proposed project will benefit 9,000 vulnerable households with their extended 54,000 family members and will be implemented in 3 Governorates (Aleppo, Dar’a and Hama). Building on its outstanding experience in intervening in other protracted crisis through provision of agriculture assistance, FAO has a resilience programming approach that will be applied to this proposed intervention.