Potential of Irrigated Agriculture in Syria

In the long term Syria has a high potential for development of irrigated agriculture. To define this potential, the available water and land resources are assessed. The total area of Syria is about 18.5×106 ha, of which only 618,000 ha are under irrigation and 3,117,000 ha are cropped under rainfed conditions. The available water resources in Syria are estimated at about $25\times {10}^9{m}^3/\mathrm{yr}$ taking into account the Syrian share of international rivers and excluding the Tigris River. Only 54% of the water volume is from the Euphrates, whereas the rest is divided between the Euphrates tributaries, other rivers, springs, and wells. At present only $8.9\times {10}^9{m}^3/\mathrm{yr}$ are being used, including $3.0\times {10}^9{m}^3/\mathrm{yr}\text{,}$ wasted to evaporation or to the sea. In order to fully utilize the available resources, around 1,500,000 ha may be irrigated. These will utilize about $20\times {10}^9{m}^3/\mathrm{yr}\text{.}$ This means increasing the area of irrigated land 150% in the future. This is a manageable target. If a rate of development of 80‐100,000 ha per 5‐yr plan is achieved, an expected development period of 40‐50 yr would be required to develop the country's resources. Present achievements in this regard are around 12,000 ha/yr only.