Harvesting Hope: Innovation & Sustainability for Syrian Farmers
The Agricultural Development Centre in Azaz (Northwest Syria) is a facility dedicated to cultivating new plant varieties, testing advanced irrigation, cultivation techniques, and agrochemicals, and providing capacity building to support sustainable farming. The Centre also offers the latest updates on agricultural innovations, practices, and technologies.
Since 2021, the University of Sussex, the NGO Syrian Academic Expertise (SAE) and the Council for At-Risk Academics (Cara) have collaborated on numerous projects focused on knowledge exchange. These projects use innovative media to promote sustainable agriculture, including the Agricultural Voices Syria podcast and video series (agricultural-voices.sussex.ac.uk), capacity building activities, and two well-attended surveys with Syrian farmers in Northwest Syria. The inauguration of the Agricultural Development Centre in Azaz marks a significant step forward, initiating a new era dedicated to enhanced extension services and training the next generation of agronomists and agricultural experts.
In November and December 2024, the Centre will host a training course titled Media for Sustainable Development. Sixty agronomists and agricultural engineers will learn to use podcasting and video recording to deliver extension services to farmers, in addition to experimenting modern applications in protected agriculture and hydroponic techniques at the centre.
The ongoing conflict in Syria since 2011 has led to a significant decline in agricultural extension services and a lack of institutions dedicated to research and capacity building for farmers and agronomists. This gap has left farmers struggling with low yields and unsustainable practices. The Agricultural Development Centre (ADC) is designed to address these needs, providing a unique space where students, farmers, and agronomists can receive training, guidance, and hands-on skill development to foster more sustainable and advanced farming practices. The ADC is open to all agricultural practitioners,
including educational institutions and NGOs, and we eagerly invite collaborators to work together for a more sustainable future.
Dr Shaher Abdullateef
SAE Director says of Agricultural Development Centre:
“The ongoing conflict in Syria since 2011 has led to a significant decline in agricultural extension services and a lack of institutions dedicated to research and capacity building for farmers and agronomists. This gap has left farmers struggling with low yields and unsustainable practices. The Agricultural Development Centre (ADC) is designed to address these needs, providing a unique space where students, farmers, and agronomists can receive training, guidance, and hands-on skill development to foster more sustainable and advanced farming practices. The ADC is open to all agricultural practitioners,
including educational institutions and NGOs, and we eagerly invite collaborators to work together for a more sustainable future”
Ms Kate Robertson
Cara Middle East Adviser, specifies:
“At a time when the international community is turning its back on the protracted crisis in Syria, it is truly heartening to see how this innovative knowledge-transfer collaboration, led by University of Sussex academics and Syrian counterparts and agriculturalists, continues to evolve, providing training to support livelihoods and respond to well-documented levels of food insecurity in Northwest Syria. Cara is proud to have facilitated this important initiative and hopes to see this latest development integrated as a cross-disciplinary module into relevant curricula within the emerging Syrian higher education sector in this still fragile area. Higher education continues to be shamefully ignored by the international community, despite the World Bank’s acknowledgement of its vital role in the development of democratic, pluralist societies.”
