Türkiye and the Syrian Arab Republic: Contributions to the Special Fund for Emergency and Rehabilitation Activities (SFERA) from Belgium, Norway and Sweden – Syrian Arab Republic

Thanks to funding from Belgium, Norway and Sweden, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) addresses the immediate needs of earthquake-affected families while mitigating longer term effects through agricultural livelihoods support

The earthquakes that struck southern Türkiye and the northern part of the Syrian Arab Republic on 6 February 2023 caused immense damages and losses, particularly in the countries’ rural areas. Crop yields, livestock, food stocks and essential agricultural inputs were lost, while irrigation systems, stock tanks and farms were destroyed, as well as markets and infrastructure. As a result, food consumption gaps have grown among the most vulnerable people. Given the already dire situation in the Syrian Arab Republic and the impact of the Syrian refugee crisis on Türkiye, there is an urgent need to minimize the suffering and uncertainty among already vulnerable communities.

Post-assessments conducted by FAO highlighted that the vast majority of the people living in earthquake-affected villages rely on crop and/or livestock production as a main source of income. Among the damages and losses, the assessment indicated serious impact on productive assets, including cropping tools, animal sheds, greenhouses, food production sites, mills, water wells, canals, dams and other irrigation infrastructures. Rapid action to restore and rebuild vital livelihoods assets is urgently required to quickly enable affected households to meet their most immediate needs as well as to reduce the longer term effects of the earthquakes.

To this end, FAO is scaling its operations to support vulnerable farmers to resume the production of crops, vegetables and orchards; replace dead animals, provide livestock feed and support animal health; rehabilitate irrigation schemes through cash for work and the provision of farm-level irrigation equipment; and repair small agri-food infrastructure.

Through the Organization’s SFERA, the Government of the Kingdom of Sweden contributed USD 1.5 million, the Government of the Kingdom of Belgium contributed USD 500 000 and the Government of the Kingdom of Norway contributed USD 1 million. This enabled FAO to expand its support to earthquake-affected communities in Türkiye and in the Syrian Arab Republic through the provision of critical agricultural livelihoods assistance. In collaboration with local authorities in the Syrian Arab Republic, FAO will recover food production and provide feed to 1 200 livestock-keeping households, as well as restore access to irrigation for 13 000 farming households in Aleppo and Hama governorates; in the northwestern part of the country, FAO will vaccinate 30 000 cattle against lumpy skin disease and provide agricultural kits to 10 400 farming households. In the southern provinces of Türkiye, FAO will distribute unconditional cash transfers to 6 000 of the most vulnerable people and agricultural kits to 400 farming households.

To complement these interventions, FAO is committed to supporting assessments of the impact of the earthquakes on livelihoods and the agriculture sector, while simultaneously implementing time-sensitive interventions in support of affected farming families.