The Middle Eastern nation of Syria is emerging from a brutal 14-year civil war. Now, it is now facing another crisis. It is suffering from a lack of rain, which has brought food insecurity to half the country’s 23 million people. The region’s worst drought in 36 years has caused major cuts to Syria’s wheat production. Wheat has been one of the country’s leading exports. Before the war, in 2011, Syrian farmers produced an average of 3.5 million to 4.5 million tons of wheat per year, Saeed Ibrahim told The Associated Press (AP). He's the head of agricultural planning and economics in Syria. This year’s yield is forecast to be just 1 million tons. That's not nearly enough to help feed Syrians, much less to export. "This has been the worst year ever since I started farming," Nazih Altarsh told Reuters. His family has run a wheat farm since 1960. The country is still trying to rebuild from its civil war. Now, it will have to use its limited funds to import wheat and other food staples. Still, President Ahmed al-Sharaa has yet to ask other countries for aid. The government he leads is just months old. And Al-Sharaa is dealing with waves of violence and how to rebuild cities and villages destroyed by war. Ibrahim told the AP that “total reliance on imports and aid threatens food security” even more. He deemed it “unsustainable." So far, help from other countries has been sparse. Syria has received only limited emergency aid. That includes 220,000 tons of wheat from Iraq and 500 tons of flour from Ukraine, Reuters reported. Russia stopped supplies over nonpayment. It is the world’s biggest exporter of wheat. Russia had backed the Assad regime, which was overthrown in December. Reflect: How might your daily life be impacted if access to food or water suddenly became limited? Photo of a land that was planted with wheat and has been harvested in Qamishli, Syria from Reuters.
