Availability of home‐produced wheat, milk products and meat to sheep‐owning families at the cultivated margin of the NW Syrian steppe

Results from a three‐year survey conducted at the cultivated margin of the NW Syrian steppe were used to estimate the availability of home‐produced wheat, milk products and meat to 17 sheep‐owning families at three locations. Yearly availability per person was 211 kg wheat, 62.6 kg yoghurt (leban), 2.9 kg cheese (jibneh) and 2.8 kg ghee (samneh). Large variations in availability were apparent among locations and years depending on the land area cultivated, flock size, wheat and milk yields and rainfall. Home‐produced wheat and milk products covered a higher percentage of the energy and protein needs of these families than estimates for the Syrian population as a whole. The contribution of meat to these needs was small. Yearly variations in the availability of these foodstuffs probably had a small effect on the nutritional status of the families due to increasing accessibility to non‐farm sources of wheat and milk products.

Key words:

• Sheep farmers
• steppe
• Syria
• subsistence agriculture
• food availability
• wheat
• milk products