Scientists at the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) reckon it could affect 50m hectares and that some farmers could lose a third of their crops.
The International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) requested seeds for drought- and heat-resistant strains of wheat and other crops that had been diminished in the conflict.
Syrian authorities sent a backup of the collection to the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, known as Icarda, an international gene bank long headquartered in the Syrian city of Aleppo.
Our team at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (Icarda) was forced to abandon its headquarters and research station in the Syrian city of Aleppo in July 2012.
A report from the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (Icarda) and two other international research groups says many of the solutions to climate change and food production are available now, but increased investment and urgent action is needed.
So Icarda moved most of its seeds to safety outside Syria, including to the "doomsday vault" in Svalbard Seed Vault in Norway, in the Arctic circle.
The scientists requested 128 boxes out of 325 they had deposited in Norway, containing a total of 116,474 samples, said Ahmed Amri, the head of genetic resources for Icarda.
"It would have been a calamity," if Icarda had lost its own seeds to the war, said Shiv Agrawal, Icarda's legume coordinator.
The solution to this challenge has been placed almost entirely in the hands of conservationists who manage ex situ (out of place) collections, such as Icarda and the global seed vault, and repositories that hold genetic material ranging from microbes to honeybee sperm, plus field collections for plants that are not cultivated from seed (such as apples and grapes).
On 10 September, Dr Mahmoud Solh, director general of the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (Icarda), sent an urgent request to the Svalbard global seed vault asking for the return of collections of seeds once held in Aleppo, Syria.
"Many of the solutions to climate change in the dry areas are known," said Mahmoud Solh, Icarda's director general.
