U.N. Food Agencies Appeal for More Funds to Help Syria

The United Nations food agencies on Friday appealed for more funds to help an estimated four million Syrians unable to produce or buy enough to eat as a new report detailed a farming sector severely hit by the conflict.

The Food and Agriculture Organization said it had only received 10 percent of the $41.7 million (32.4 million euros) it needed to assist 768,000 farmers, while the World Food Program said its operations were "only 48 percent resourced".

WFP said it reached 2.5 million people with food aid in June, was planning to reach 3.0 million in July and 4.0 million people in need by October.

"Crop and livestock production, food availability and access to food have all taken an increasingly heavy toll," said the report compiled following a joint mission by WFP and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to Syria between May and June.

The report said that poultry production had gone down by 50 percent since the start of the uprising against President Bashar Assad in March 2011, while wheat output had declined by 40 percent and flour prices had more than doubled in a two-year period.

"Domestic production over the next 12 months will be severely compromised," it said.

Food production has been hampered by "massive population displacement", damage to infrastructure, economic sanctions, currency depreciation and high fuel prices, it added.

FAO said it had supported some 70,000 farmers this year, providing them with animal feed, small ruminants, as well as seeds and tools.