The Fund for Mitigating the Effects of Drought and Natural Disasters on Agricultural Production was established by Decree No. 114 of 2011. It operates under the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform and has a dedicated directorate within the ministry. The fund’s headquarters is located in the capital, Damascus, with branches in the governorates.

Decree No. 114 of 2011 specifies that the fund’s mission is to compensate those affected by material losses due to damage to their agricultural or livestock production caused by drought, natural disasters, or adverse climatic, environmental, or biological conditions. This includes frost, heatwaves, floods, dust storms, hail, strong winds, heavy rain, insect infestations, and disease outbreaks affecting crops or animals.

According to the decree, compensation is provided only if losses exceed 50 percent of the affected party’s agricultural or livestock production, and the damaged cultivated area must cover more than 10 percent of the administrative unit’s land area. Compensation is limited to production costs only. Because the area requirement for compensation was too large, decree No. 21 of 2013 amended Decree 114 of 2011, reducing the affected area to 5 percent of the total cultivated area with the same crop within the approved administrative unit, which could be a village or a town. Decree 21 of 2013 also authorised the Prime Minister to modify the percentages of losses and the area.

Although Decree No. 114 of 2011 does not explicitly state the purpose of establishing the fund, it emerged in the context of official government reports and studies that began to seriously address climate change issues after long periods of neglect. Between 2006 and 2010, Syria was hit by a severe drought, exacerbated by the government’s chronic mismanagement of water resources and the liberal economic policies implemented as part of the “social market economy” paradigm adopted by the government from 2005. These policies led to the cancellation of farmer subsidies in 2008 and 2009, which doubled the price of diesel and fertilisers, threatening the livelihoods of millions, particularly in the Euphrates Basin. The failure of the state and its institutions to respond to the resulting humanitarian crisis caused hundreds of thousands of Syrians to flee the Euphrates Basin to major cities such as Aleppo and Damascus. This displacement is believed to have contributed to the motivations behind the 2011 revolution.

Decree No. 114 of 2011 defines drought as a reduction in rainfall below normal levels or its poor distribution, resulting in water and agricultural resource shortages, environmental degradation, and direct financial losses in agricultural production. Natural disasters are defined as unavoidable events caused by climatic, environmental, or biological factors deviating from their normal levels, leading to losses in agricultural or livestock production.

The fund is managed by a Board of Directors, chaired by the Minister of Agriculture, with members including the fund’s director, representatives from the Ministries of Finance, Local Administration and Environment, and Water Resources, as well as representatives from the Planning and International Cooperation Commission, the Agricultural Cooperative Bank, the Directorate of Plant Production, and the Directorate of Animal Production—both affiliated with the Ministry of Agriculture. Additionally, there are two representatives from the General Farmers’ Union.

The responsibilities of the Board of Directors include proposing policies, plans, and work programmes for the fund, and recommending the principles, conditions, and level of the fund’s contribution to compensating those affected. The board has the authority to accept donations, grants, assistance, bequests, and contributions in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. It is also responsible for proposing the fund’s annual estimated budget and approving its periodic accounts.

The fund’s director, appointed by a decision of the Minister of Agriculture, acts as the authorising officer for expenditure and contracts on behalf of the fund. The director’s duties include developing the operational programmes for the fund’s plans, implementing its general policies, representing the fund in external affairs and legal matters, preparing the annual budget proposal, and submitting regular reports on the fund’s activities.

The fund also operates an Early Warning Unit, which is concerned with disaster forecasting. This unit issues bulletins for monitoring drought and climate changes, and provides advice on precautionary measures that can be taken to mitigate the effects of disasters on agricultural and livestock production, using agricultural media outlets.

Decree No. 114 of 2011 specifies 11 sources of financial resources for the fund, including annual allocations from the general budget, 0.5 percent of the value of strategic crops delivered to state institutions annually, 0.5 percent of the value of agricultural exports and imports, one percent of fines for encroachments on state property, and one percent of fines for violations of the agricultural plan collected by the ministry. However, there is no mention of any compensation provided by the fund before 2013, and thus it is likely that none of the previous percentages were paid into the fund’s budget, except for SYP 25 million, which were provided as a one-time contribution by the General Union of Farmers. The amendment issued by Decree No. 21 of 2013 limited the fund’s resources to the allocations designated for it annually from the general budget. In no case may the total annual compensation paid by the fund exceed 80 percent of its total general balance.

The fund’s budget in 2013 amounted to SYP 1.7 billion, rising to SYP 14 billion in 2022, SYP 50 billion in 2023, and is expected to exceed SYP 88 billion in 2024. (The exchange rate of the Syrian pound relative to the dollar fluctuated significantly during these years. At the end of 2013, the rate was SYP 140 per dollar, while at the end of 2022, the rate settled at SYP 2,500, rising to SYP 13,000 in 2023. Currently, the dollar stands at around SYP 15,000).

Despite these figures, the total compensation paid by the fund from 2013 to the present, according to the fund’s director in an interview with the state-run Tishreen newspaper published on July 10, amounts to SYP 34 billion, distributed to 350,000 families. This implies that the average compensation per family is approximately SYP 100,000. These figures do not provide a timeline of payments that would allow for an accurate estimate in US dollars. Additionally, it is unclear why the director used the term “family” instead of “farmers” or “livestock breeders.”

The director mentioned that compensation does not cover actual losses and is calculated based on categories related to the extent of damage. It starts with a five percent compensation for 50 percent crop loss and goes up to 10 percent for total loss. The damage assessment is based on production costs rather than the market value of agricultural or livestock products.

In practice, to access the fund’s compensation, affected farmers or livestock breeders must submit a damage compensation request to their local guidance units within 15 days of the damage occurring, or they forfeit their right to compensation. The application must be accompanied by personal and agricultural regulation documents. A committee then assesses the damage, determines the extent, and compiles a list of affected individuals. This list is sent to the provincial Drought Fund Directorate, where it is reviewed to ensure the applicants meet the criteria: losses must exceed 50 percent of agricultural or livestock production, and the affected cultivated area must cover more than 5 percent of the total cultivated area with the same crop within the approved administrative unit. After determining the compensation amount, the lists are sent to a central committee for review before being presented to the fund’s Board of Directors in Damascus, which then decides the final compensation amounts.