The Ministry of Agriculture announced that the number of invested greenhouses in Syria has reached 175,522, making an effective contribution to enhancing agricultural production and providing vegetables outside open-field seasons, thereby helping to meet local market needs and achieve relative stability in product availability, in addition to strengthening export opportunities and injecting foreign currency into the economy.
In the same context, Maher Al-Daj, Director of Plant Production at the Ministry of Agriculture, clarified in a statement to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on Wednesday that Tartous Governorate leads Syrian governorates in the number of invested greenhouses, with 143,763 units, accounting for about 82 percent of the total, followed by Latakia with 15,719 units at 9 percent, then Homs with 13,706 units at 8 percent, while the remaining 1 percent is distributed among other governorates.
For his part, Al-Daj pointed out that tomatoes lead the crops grown in greenhouses with 87,121 units, accounting for about 50 percent of the total, followed by strawberries with 18,765 units at 11 percent, then cucumbers with 17,701 units at 10 percent, while the number of greenhouses planted with eggplants is 16,391, and peppers with 15,052 units at 9 percent each, and the number of greenhouses dedicated to tropical crops reaches 7,614 units at 4 percent.
Al-Daj added that the Ministry of Agriculture provides advisory and technical support to farmers through technicians in directorates of agriculture and their advisory units, through direct supervision and monitoring of production stages from land preparation to harvesting, addressing technical and pathological problems, and disseminating integrated management programs for major agricultural pests. The Ministry also organizes protected cultivation through advisory units to enable farmers to obtain fertilizers and benefit from compensation from the Drought and Natural Disaster Impact Mitigation Fund in case of major damages.
He noted that protected agriculture faces several challenges, most notably the high cost of setup and production inputs, low prices during peak periods, and weak external marketing, which limit farmers' ability to continue their activity, while extreme weather conditions such as sea dragons, storms, and heavy rains represent an additional challenge that may cause significant losses, while future plans focus on enhancing exports through foreign contracts, regulating imports, and training technical cadres, in cooperation with Turkey to disseminate modern technologies in Tartous, Latakia, and Idlib.
Source: Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA)
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