For nearly as long as the civil war in Syria has been ongoing, 36-year-old Sena Hamad has been living in a refugee camp with her three daughters and husband on the outskirts of the city of Osmaniye in southern Turkey.

Today, she is among the first group of 25 trainees to have been selected for training on greenhouse vegetable production.

In all, the FAO pilot project will train 150 refugees to grow vegetables in a newly established greenhouse next to the refugee camp, which hosts 15 000 people. After a “train the trainers” event was conducted, on-the-job training of refugees on greenhouse vegetable production has been held since late September. Trainees are gaining the new talents they need for skilled jobs in the agriculture sector, and the vegetable yield is being distributed free of charge throughout the refugee camp to improve nutrition and food security.