Reuters
Two officials working in the sector of raising sheep, cows and poultry in Syria talked about the challenges facing this sector, and presented solutions to confront the disaster that threatens livestock.
In statements carried by the Syrian newspaper Al-Watan, the head of the Al-Lahhamin Association in Syria, Adam Kotaish, revealed that what is required to confront the disaster that threatens livestock is working to prevent the smuggling of sheep and cows in any form by increasing control further and closing border crossings to livestock smugglers, pointing out. To the fact that most of the cows and sheep are in the Raheibah area, and from there they are smuggled out.
He explained that the feed support must be increased by the Syrian government in order for the breeder to benefit from this support, indicating that the sheep and cattle breeders will not carry out breeding as they continue to suffer losses due to the high prices of feed.
He indicated that the sheep and cattle breeders lose when they sell sheep and cows to the local market, while they profit when they sell them to the smugglers, indicating that the selling price of a single calf to the smuggler exceeds the price of selling it to the market up to 800,000 pounds.
He pointed out that there is no accurate statistic about the percentage of cattle and sheep breeders who left production as a result of their exposure to repeated losses, stressing that this percentage can be determined for poultry. As for cows and sheep, there is a difficulty in determining it because there are breeders who do not have a license for breeding and it is not necessary for them to have a license, pointing out to The number of breeders who are currently leaving production is increasing day after day.
He pointed out that production currently covers the market need as a result of the lack of demand and weak purchasing power, but in the event that the purchasing power of the Syrian citizen is good, the current production will not cover the market need, pointing out that the feed support ratios must be raised and these ratios must be real, indicating that the subsidy percentage The government feedstock that must reach the breeders is around 40 percent, but this percentage is not reached.
He noted that the concerned parties in the Syrian Ministry of Agriculture must also carefully inspect the herds of sheep and cows in order to accurately count them and know their number at each breeder in order to give each breeder his real need of subsidized feed.
In turn, a member of the Committee of Poultry Breeders in Syria, Hikmat Haddad, confirmed that feed prices have now increased by 40 percent, pointing out that a ton of soybeans has now reached the limits of 1.6 million, and is expected to rise further. The homeland of yellow corn has reached the limits of 800 thousand pounds, indicating that the importers of feed If they had not taken the dollar at the preferential rate from the Central Bank, a ton of yellow corn would have reached the limits of one million pounds, and soybeans would have reached 1.8 million pounds.
The Syrian Minister of Agriculture Hassan Qatna had previously revealed a disaster threatening livestock, stressing that there are indications of a loss between 40 and 50 percent of poultry, while 50 percent of livestock was lost from sheep and cows through smuggling and death.
Source: Al Watan
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