Agricultural Voices Syria

Using innovative social media, we aim to reconnect Syrian farmers and other actors in agri-food value chains with the country’s experts, helping them to start Syria’s long-term recovery.

One of the most critical impacts that the Syrian armed conflict had on agriculture was the collapse of extension services for farmers which, before 2011, were provided by the government. The transition to a free-market economy has added further challenges.

Agricultural Voices Syria aims to address these difficulties by promoting capacity building. It provides Syrian agricultural experts living in Turkey and Syria with knowledge and new media to sustain farmers in Northwest Syria.

Agricultural Voices Syria (AVS) started with the creation of a podcast series in 2021, followed by a video series in 2022 and the opening of an Agricultural Development Centre in Azaz, in 2024. These projects were supported by different grants from IDCF and SSRP and were implemented in partnership with Cara, UK (Council for at-risk academics) and SAE, Turkey (Syrian Academic Expertise). The production of videos and podcasts for Syrian farmers has continued after the end of the projects.

Our journey started in November 2020—just days before one of the longest COVID lockdowns in the UK—when Mirela Barbu from the Business School met her research partner, Martin Spinelli from the School of Media, Arts & Humanities. At that time, Mirela was merely a podcast listener, searching for someone to teach Syrian agronomists how to produce podcasts for farmers, while Martin was already an internationally renowned podcast producer and media expert. 

The members of the NGO Syrian Academic Expertise were determined to support Syrian farmers by providing agricultural extension services (information, advice and demonstrations) once made available on conventional broadcast outlets. However, in a country ravaged by war, with restricted mobility across the Turkish-Northern Syrian border, delivering such services was virtually impossible. As an alternative, we created the podcast series Agricultural Voices Syria (AVS) to bridge this gap and reach farmers in Northwest Syria and beyond.

For further information, please contact Dr Mirela Barbu (PI) or Prof Martin Spinelli (Co-I). This website was developed by our Communications Officers, Katherine Jones, Mariam Abdel-Akher and Ruth Holroyd.