Watan in partnership with the World Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has completed its project “Supporting the feed industry in north-western Syria”. This is in the towns and villages of Jarabulus, Al-Bab, Qabasin, Bazzah, Azaz, Souran, al-Ra’I, northern Aleppo and areas in the Idlib province: Harem, Armanaz, Armanaz beer Ma’rat Misrin.
The project addressed the animal feed gap in North-Western Syria caused by material limita-tions against high prices of concentrated feed for livestock (affordability barrier).
The project was based on the production of local animal feed via the provision of mobile feed mills (rotary mills), and the local supply of raw materials for the manufacture of animal feed, as well as support for farmers with raw materials through the voucher procurement system.
The project helped build technical capacity in the feed industry for 400 groups of farmers in north-western Syria, by training them in the production of feed and installation of feed mix-tures.
The project thus ensured the sustainable increase of local availability of affordable livestock feed for sheep, dairy cows, and chickens for smallholders, thereby automatically achieving a sustainable increase in livestock productivity, supporting the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, their families and the rural women who relied on small sales of dairy, chicken and egg produc-tion.
There are 4023 family beneficiaries from this project, and it will be on a continuous basis where they distributed 400 feed machines, with a machine for every 10 families. All of which: received training courses in the feed industry, provided with support with raw materials by the voucher procurement system, in addition 13 veterinarians and agricultural engineers were as-signed further advanced courses in the feed industry.
