DAMASCUS - Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform and Food and the UN Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Monday signed a document on women empowerment project to improve food security and nutrition through small income generating projects.
The project, which starts in September 2011 and ends in August 2013, comes within the framework of supporting the national program for funding small projects with a total cost of SYP 1.5 billion.
Minister of Agriculture Riyad Hijab said the agreement provides for funding small projects in the northeastern region with a total cost of USD 343,000. The main aim is to reduce poverty and immigration in that region due to drought.
He added that the government launched 13,000 income generating projects across the Syrian provinces, some of which aim at settling rural families in Deir Ezzor, Hasaka and Raqqa, in addition to the rural women empowerment program.
Minister Hijab indicated that the Ministry and FAO recently signed a program to help families damaged by floods in Hasaka.
For his part, the FAO Representative in Syria Abdullah Taher Bin Yahya said the project comes within the Ministry's five-year plan to build capacities through holding training courses and training 90 staff members at the Women Empowerment Directorate in the Ministry.
© SANA (Syria Arab News Agency) 2011
