Agriculture could be the engine of recovery in the Syrian Arab Republic. However, for productive and resilient agriculture, farmers must be able to access good quality seed of well-adapted and preferred varieties of the major strategic crops.

Before the crisis, the General Organization for Seed Multiplication (GOSM) was responsible for the production of approxamently 300,000 tons of certified seed production for strategic crops (wheat, barley, major pulses). However, the losses of facilities and human capacities due to the conflict reduced its seed production well below pre-crisis levels. For the 2020 planting season, GOSM distributed around 75,000 tons of wheat seed to farmers which are only 25 percent of the amount that GOSM used to distribute before the crisis. Restoring capacity goes beyond seed production; in fact, it includes research and seed supply, and associated services such as credit and marketing. With a challenging economic situation, the level of seed production may not return to the previous levels for all crops, and other strategies for producing and supplying quality seed may need to be considered, to complement GOSM’s work