FAO/GIEWS - Foodcrops & Shortages 06/01 - SYRIA (25 May)
Three consecutive years of drought have severely affected crop and livestock production. Rainfall this year is reported to have been better than last year but pockets still remain where the rains were not enough to offset the soil moisture deficit.
In 1999 and 2000 severe droughts decimated cereal crops and led to a significant increase in sheep mortality rates that seriously affected incomes of small herders. Latest reports put the 2000 wheat production at 2.7 million tonnes, about 4 percent above the previous year’s reduced crop but 25 percent below average. Barley production, which is almost entirely rainfed, is estimated at 130 000 tonnes, about 88 percent below the previous five-year average.