Due to unfavourable growing conditions over much of Syria, only about 30% of the land is cultivated. Much of the tilled land needs to be irrigated, even in regions which receive large amounts of rainfall, because most of the rain falls during the winter, rather than in the growing season. Soil exhaustion, due to over-use and insufficient use of fertilizers, is also a problem.
Syria manages to produce a wide variety of crops, nonetheless, both for domestic use and for export. Cotton was the major export crop until the oil boom in the mid-1970s and once accounted for more than half the country's export revenues. Wheat and barley are also important crops. Others include olives, tobacco, citrus fruits, vegetables and sugar beet. Livestock mainly consists of sheep and goats, which are herded in the mountain areas.
The best farmland is to be found in the coastal region and in the river valleys.
As a result of investment in developing natural
resources and using modern techniques, agricultural production has significantly
developed during recent years. The policies and procedures taken by the
government and the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform had greatly encouraged
agricultural production and develop it both vertically and horizontally.
Sufficient production had been achieved for most agricultural products and surplus
became ready for export.
About /24/ thousand hectares are reclaimed and afforested annually as well as building forest ways of about /2400/ km. long.
About /24/ thousand hectares are reclaimed and afforested annually as well as building forest ways of about /2400/ km. long.
Follow-up the forest-protection works and fires-control by wireless communication net, towers, police stations and centers of fires-control.
There are /5/ environmental protected centers have been announced for, and /3/ others are under discussion.
The Department of Forest Researches has been founded newly to work towards the development and improvement of forests.