Mahmoud Barhum crouches amid neat rows of radish and lettuce seedlings on his small organic plot in Qumaisa, a quiet village nestled in the rural rolling hills on Syria’s Mediterranean coast. He counts each sprout with care, imagining how many farmers in his community will benefit from this season’s harvest, thanks in part due to an organic agricultural cooperative.

Barhum works a plot measuring less than an acre, where he set up a volunteer nursery to raise radish, lettuce, garden cress, and other crops he distributes to villagers free of charge. “Hybrid chemical seeds might give you bigger and prettier produce, but organic plants have a real smell and taste,” he told TriplePundit.

The nursery is a rarity in Syria, where nearly all farming now relies on chemical inputs, said Akram Afif, an agricultural expert and founder of the Syrian Family-Projects Cooperation.

The pressure to use chemical fertilizers and pesticides mounted during the 14-year Syrian civil war. Between 2011 and 2016 alone, the nation’s rural population fell by half as crop and livestock production declined, irrigation systems were destroyed, large swaths of farmland were damaged, and the cost of essentials like seeds, fertilizers and pesticides increased.

By 2022, Syrian farmers depended on imported fertilizers and agricultural chemicals bought at black-market rates, sending costs soaring and cutting into both crop yields and quality.

“Chemical agriculture killed the soil’s living bacteria and the worms that turn organic matter into fertilizer,” Afif said. “Many countries have returned Syrian exports because the chemical residue exceeded acceptable limits.”

Barhum’s desire to return to organic farming took root four years ago while scrolling on Facebook. He was inspired by Solidarity Fields, an organic agricultural cooperative founded in 2015 by Syrian refugee Suleiman Dakdouk, one of more than 1 million Syrians who fled to Greece by mid-2015.

The Journey of an Organic Agricultural Cooperative: From Refugee Fields to Syrian Soil

In 2015, Solidarity Fields founder Suleiman Dakdouk and fellow Syrian refugees in Greece revived abandoned schools and rehabilitated them into living spaces, with funds from the Syrian Free Expatriates Association in Greece and the help of international volunteers.

But the relief efforts felt insufficient. Dakdouk wanted refugees to move beyond relying on handouts from the organizations he saw as profiting from their suffering, so he focused on reclaiming abandoned land and cultivating it organically.

Read the full article about Solidarity Fields by Mawada Bahah at TriplePundit.