Syria’s Worst Drought in Decades Cuts Wheat Harvests, Threatens Widespread Hunger

Syria is facing its worst drought in 36 years, cutting wheat yields by roughly 40% and creating a projected national shortfall of 2.73 million tonnes this year, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said. The deficit — equivalent to the annual dietary needs of about 16.25 million people — comes as millions of Syrians already struggle with poverty and limited food access.

The FAO report warned that, without substantially increased food aid or imports, food insecurity in Syria could reach unprecedented levels by late 2025 into mid-2026. More than 14 million people are now struggling to obtain sufficient food; of those, 9.1 million face acute hunger and 1.3 million are in severe conditions, the agency said. Rainfall has fallen by nearly 70%, crippling approximately 75% of the country's rain-fed farmland and sharply reducing staple-crop output.

Farmers described fields that should be heavy with grain as barren and financially ruinous. Maher Haddad, a 46-year-old farmer near Hama, said his 40 dunums (10 acres) of wheat yielded about 190 kilograms per dunum this season, compared with the 400–500 kilograms he expects in a normal year. "This year was disastrous due to drought," Haddad told the BBC, saying he had not recovered sowing costs and was borrowing money to feed his family.

The shortfall is intensifying pressure on households and markets. Wheat is Syria’s primary staple for bread and pasta; reduced domestic production and higher demand have pushed up prices for the most basic items. A 39-year-old widow, Sanaa Mahamid, said the price of a bag of bread rose from 500 Syrian pounds to 4,500 pounds over the past year. Mahamid, who supports six children, said she now sometimes borrows money just to buy bread.

The drought compounds broader post-conflict economic distress. Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s transitional administration is attempting to rebuild after more than a decade of war and the removal of former leader Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, according to officials. Decades of fighting left irrigation systems damaged, farmland littered with mines, and supply chains disrupted. Those structural weaknesses have reduced the sector’s resilience to climatic shocks.

International agencies are seeking to blunt the immediate food shock. The World Food Programme (WFP) is providing bread subsidies and other aid, while the FAO and other partners are scaling up assistance aimed at stabilizing rural livelihoods. Marianne Ward, the WFP’s country director for Syria, said the agency has provided about $8 million in direct payments to roughly 150,000 smallholder farmers who lost entire crops. "If you're not going to make money, you're going to leave the land. And then you're not going to have people who are going to be working in the agriculture sector which is essential for the economy," Ward said.

Despite emergency aid, officials say longer-term solutions are needed to prevent a mass exodus from farming communities and to restore production. Dr. Ali Aloush, agriculture director for the Deir al-Zour region — a traditional breadbasket — said wheat typically requires four to six irrigations per season, but reduced rainfall and soaring fuel costs have left many farmers unable to operate pumps. He reported fuel prices of 11,000 to 12,000 Syrian pounds per litre, arguing that the cost and intermittent power supply have made irrigation prohibitively expensive and driven farmers further into debt.

Plans to rehabilitate irrigation networks and install water-saving systems such as solar-powered drip irrigation are priorities for regional authorities and the transitional government, Dr. Aloush said. But those projects require financing and time that farming families do not have in the midst of the current crisis.

Households are employing desperate coping mechanisms. Many farmers are selling livestock to cover lost incomes, families are reducing the number of daily meals, and rates of malnutrition among children and pregnant women have reportedly risen. FAO senior programme officer Piro Tomaso Perri warned that without enhanced food aid and import capacity, the number of people facing hunger will grow sharply.

Syria has increased wheat imports, including shipments from Russia, to fill gaps in domestic supply, but those measures are costly and may not be sufficient to stabilize prices or ensure access for the poorest households. Aid agencies say that both immediate assistance — food distributions, subsidies and cash transfers — and investments in resilient water and agricultural infrastructure will be required to avert deeper food insecurity.

For many Syrians who depend on the land, the outlook is stark and immediate. "If the price of bread rises again, this will be a big problem. The most important thing is bread," said Sanaa Mahamid. Farmers like Haddad and households across the country say they have little choice but to wait for rain while international and domestic actors try to keep food on tables and farmers on their land.