BRUSSELS — International efforts to rebuild Syria once the civil war is over should center on agriculture to kick start the economy and quickly improve the livelihoods of the people, a high-level United Nations official said Tuesday.
In an interview with The Associated Press ahead of an international Syria donors conference, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization’s Deputy Director General Daniel Gustafson said that in case of a return to peace the impact of funding farming would yield almost immediate results.
“If you invest in that, you are going to get a quick return,” he said.
Despite seven years of warfare through much of the Middle Eastern nation which also blighted farmland and destroyed facilities, farming still accounts for about a quarter of Syria’s gross domestic product.
UN figures show that some $16 billion in production has been lost because of the war and it will take about as much to get the recovery of farming going again. At the two-day Syria conference opening Tuesday, donors from across the globe hope to commit several billion in assistance to alleviate the pressing needs of Syrians. Over $5 billion was committed last year. (AP)