GENEVA: More than 13 million Syrians -- over half the population -- are facing acute food insecurity, the United Nations warned Tuesday, calling for clearing explosive-littered fields to revitalise agriculture in the war-shattered country.
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization said turning fields riddled with unexploded ordnance following the brutal civil war into productive land could help solve the food crisis in Syria.
"Syria's agriculture sector is at a pivotal moment," said Pirro-Tomaso Perri, the FAO's acting representative in the country.
"After 14 years of conflict, recurrent droughts, economic hardship, damaged irrigation, weakened services, disrupted markets, and widespread explosive ordnance contamination, rural livelihoods remain under severe pressure."
He said there were "around 13.4 million people facing high levels of acute food insecurity," while for many rural Syrians, "cultivating land, grazing animals, harvesting crops can be life-threatening".
The Syrian civil war, which erupted in 2011 with president Bashar al-Assad's brutal repression of anti-government protests, killed over half a million people and devastated the country's infrastructure.
Assad was eventually ousted in December 2024.
Perri said that since then, 1,299 explosive ordinance-related incidents have been recorded in Syria, with 2,325 casualties.
"Agricultural and grazing areas continue to account for the majority of recorded incidents," he told a press conference in Geneva.
With vast contamination and limited capacity, FAO is drawing up prioritisation plans to identify where clearance could have the greatest impact on food production.
Once land is made safe, the FAO would then support farmers and herders with irrigation, seeds, animal feed and veterinary services.
The FAO Emergency Resilience Plan for 2026-2028 aims to assist 9.8 million people, and requires $286 million.
"Our pledge is to continue supporting Syrian farmers, herders, and rural communities," said Perri, "so that agriculture can provide food security, restore livelihoods... and help Syria move from emergency to sustainable recovery".
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