At the national level, the main Government organization dealing with soils and fertilizers is the Soils Directorate. Some research is conducted through agricultural faculties at the universities, for example those of Damascus, Aleppo and Lattakia. Of the international institutes, ICARDA, based in Aleppo, is the dominant organization for fertilizer research in the Syrian Arab Republic and throughout the WANA region. To a lesser extent, the Arab Centre for the Studies of Arid Zones and Drylands (ACSAD) in Damascus is also involved in similar research at a regional level.
ICARDA has been working in the dry areas of the Syrian Arab Republic for more than 20 years and has characterized the farming systems in the WANA region (Figure 7).
ICARDA and the Soils Directorate of the Syrian Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform implemented a collaborative project through multiple season-multiple location trials, using a farming system research approach.
Figure 7 Farming systems in WANA region
The objective was to assess the biological responses and economic viability of fertilizer use on barley in dry areas. Barley fertilizer trials were conducted on farmers’ fields for four years to investigate whether the large yield response to fertilizer obtained on research stations could be reproduced under the highly variable soil and rainfall conditions faced by farmers.
The results obtained from this project were positive and confirmed the results obtained on research stations. Economic analysis of the trials indicated that fertilizer use on rainfed barley is profitable at the farm level, with a positive impact at the national level in terms of production and net revenue. Net revenue and marginal net benefit/cost ratios were compared, for each fertilizer treatment, between three groups of trials. Net revenue values indicated that fertilizer use on rainfed barley was profitable in all treatments except (a) the low P rate without N (N0P30) in the fallow-barley rotation in Zone 2 and (b) all N rates without P, except N20P0, in the fallow-barley rotation in Zone 3.
There were substantial yield gaps in both Zones 2 and 3, between actual farm trials and researcher-managed trial yields during the 1984/85 to 1987/88 seasons. Farm yields could be increased by around 114 percent to 168 percent in Zone 2 and 136 to 211 percent in Zone 3. Of this potential increase, 630 to 952 kg/ha in Zone 2 and 250 to 1 017 kg/ha in Zone 3 are directly attributable to fertilizer use, the remainder of the potential increase being due to other management factors, such as land preparation, seed rate, rotation and drilling the seed.
Results obtained from research on fertilizer use on rainfed wheat in the Syrian Arab Republic carried out by ICARDA in collaboration with the Syrian Soil Directorate, were published by Pala et al. (1996). A series of researcher-managed wheat fertilizer trials was conducted on representative farmers’ fields across northwest Syrian Arab Republic between 1986 and 1990. Wheat grain and straw yields were strongly correlated with seasonal (October to May) rainfall, almost irrespective of soil fertility, crop sequence or fertilizer rate. There was a highly significant response to nitrogen fertilizer which was higher with increasing rainfall and decreasing initial soil mineral nitrogen values. Economic analysis indicated that all fertilizer treatment rates were profitable under existing price conditions. Fertilizer use would still be beneficial with an N price up to three times higher than that of the price of grain (weight for weight) with a seasonal rainfall of 250 mm and up to six times higher with a seasonal rainfall of 450 mm.
Mazid (1994), developed an approach and model to identify, quantify and evaluate the factors that influence the adoption of new technology in the dry areas in the Syrian Arab Republic. It focused on fertilizer use on rainfed barley. The results indicated that the use of fertilizer on barley is profitable, simple, low risk, observable, compatible with the farming system and environmentally sustainable. Four major sets of factors were hypothesized as key issues for the adoption behaviour of farmers. These sets of factors were “the farming system”, “farm resources”, “farmers characteristics”, which included personal and psychological components, and “institutional and communication” factors. Each main factor was represented by many variables, and each variable was investigated separately by using simple statistical methods to compare characteristics of farmers who have adopted the fertilizers with those who have not. However, understanding the adoption behaviour of farmers requires the analyst to look beyond the relationships between single variables. Therefore, an econometric approach using a Logit Model was applied to identify the most important factors influencing the adoption behaviour of farmers.
The results indicated that there were differences between agro-ecological zones as regards the factors influencing adoption behaviour. In Zone 2, six factors were the most important in explaining adoption behaviour. These included “cooperative membership”, “how the farmer sees himself as progressive”, “percentage of barley on the farm”, “number of farm information sources”, “with off-farm activities” and “how the farmer sees himself as flexible”. In the drier Zone 3, “fertilizer availability”, “off-farm activity”, “farm size”, “seeing a fertilizer demonstration trial”, “soil fertility” and “fertilizer source” were key factors effecting the adoption of fertilizer technology.
These results led to a new agricultural policy for the allocation of fertilizers to barley producers in the dry areas. The adoption rate is the most important factor influencing potential impact in terms of increasing barley production. Some rainfed barley farmers have adopted the use of fertilizers but others do not yet use them, especially those in the drier areas. 87 percent of farmers in Zone 2 but only 47 percent in the drier Zone 3 were using fertilizers on their barley in 1993.
Mazid and Bailey (1992), used optimization analysis to show that the economic optimum fertilizer rates vary considerably with rainfall and relative prices. Historical rainfall data were combined with the estimated response functions and stochastic dominance analysis was used to compare the risk of fertilizer treatments in terms of net benefits and benefit-cost ratios. Given the estimated expected rainfall in barley producing areas, fertilizer use, especially at a low level, may not be as risky as has been believed.
Other important studies related to fertilizer use in the Syrian Arab Republic were those of Whitaker (1990), Saade (1991) and El-Hajj et al. (1990).
Early research at ICARDA investigated the possibility of increasing crop yields by improving water-use efficiency by crops through the application of fertilizer. Research station trials showed that barley responds significantly to fertilizer, especially phosphate, even under low-rainfall conditions. Results from research station trials over a range of years and sites showed that fertilizers increased water use-efficiency (output per unit of water) by around 75 percent. Two mechanisms are involved in this yield increase:
1. More rapid development of crop cover, so that less water is lost by evaporation from the soil surface and hence the crop utilizes more, producing more dry matter.
2. More rapid completion of the growth cycle, so that a greater proportion of growth occurs under the moderate temperatures and higher humidity of early spring, and the higher temperatures and higher evaporative demand of late spring are at least partly avoided.
