Wheat deliveries to government procurement centers in Syria’s northeastern Hasakah province have reached 480,000 tons as harvesting enters its final stage, officials said on Tuesday.  Abdul Hamid Dawoud, director of the Syrian Grain Trade Corporation’s Hasakah branch, said procurement operations are continuing at recently opened open-air storage facilities, silos and warehouses established to increase receiving capacity and streamline deliveries from farmers.  The additional facilities have increased the government’s daily procurement capacity to around 30,000 tons, helping ease congestion at collection centers during the peak harvest season, Dawoud said.  Since procurement began, farmers and producers have delivered 480,000 tons of wheat to government collection centers across the province, he added.  Meanwhile, Ezzeddin al-Hasso, assistant director of Hasakah’s Agriculture and Agrarian Reform Directorate, said harvesting of the province’s strategic crops is nearing completion.  He said 92,900 hectares of irrigated wheat have been harvested out of 100,200 hectares planted, while harvesting of rain-fed wheat has reached 341,400 hectares from a cultivated area of 363,300 hectares.  Harvesting of irrigated barley has been completed across the entire 21,000 hectares planted, while rain-fed barley harvesting has reached 264,100 hectares out of 268,000 hectares, al-Hasso said.  He added that 1,415 combine harvesters are operating across the province, accelerating the pace of harvesting.  The Syrian Grain Corporation opened new open-air grain storage facilities in Qamishli and Amuda on June 24 to expand storage capacity and improve readiness for the current procurement season.  Hasakah is Syria’s largest wheat-producing province and a cornerstone of the country’s grain supply and food security. According to official estimates, wheat cultivation this season covered about 463,500 hectares of irrigated and rain-fed land, with total production expected to exceed 1.025 million tons. Barley output is projected at around 609,000 tons. (ICE BEIRUT)

Fonte notizia: Syrian Arab News Agency