Agricultural cooperative in Tirbespiyê

Five years ago, four women founded an agricultural cooperative in Tirbespiyê. Today, forty women work there and the cooperative covers a large part of the demand for vegetables in the Northern Syrian region.

The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria promotes many projects to increase local production and organic farming. One of these projects was started five years ago by four women in Tirbespiyê. The local economic committee provided the women with a piece of land on which they grew vegetables in nine greenhouses. The work has been expanded, and within five years the women have planted 2500 trees and increased the number of greenhouses to 22.

The cooperative is located on the main road in the Cizîrê region and has become a permanent point of contact for the people living in the area. The vegetables grown are offered at reasonable prices and cover a large part of the regional demand.

The project manager Ahin Şikri explains that the number of employees is to be increased to one hundred. The cultivation of onions and garlic is particularly productive. For a small fee, the people from the region can also grow their own vegetables on the premises.

Emani Xaim has been working in the cooperative for one and a half years and is very satisfied with it: "It makes me happy that I can work here as a woman. I hope that all women worldwide can be economically independent."