Focus on farming in the south

Tawfiq al-Ka'bi, a farmer, was pointing to what used to be his house and fields. "We had hundreds of palm trees here and we used to grow different kinds of fruits and vegetables in their shade. Everything went during the war with Iran, and I had to escape in 1981 and go to Najaf with my family. We spent 10 years there," he told IRIN in Al-Faw. He said the Iraqi army had cut down all the palm trees and bulldozed the fields to erect barrages against the Iranians. The 120 sq km or so of Al-Faw peninsula down in the deep south of the country along the borders with Iran and the Shatt al-Arab river was in the 1970s considered to be one of the world's most extensive areas of planted forest. Farmers who used to live there were proud to export their Barhi dates, once the best and more expensive type. Al-Faw was also well known for its fish production and the cultivation of henna. "Everything was available here for farmers," Badran Jathib, another farmer, told IRIN. "The irrigation channels bringing water from the Shatt al-Arab river were everywhere and we used to rely on them to water our fields," he said, adding that the Iraqi army had blocked the irrigation channels during the war with Iran. Badran fled his farm when the fighting intensified, and when he returned in 1990 he found the land deserted. "I had to build a simple house from clay to start things up again. I tried to get some money by selling groceries, but I'm a farmer and that was the best thing I could do," he told IRIN. "The Iraq/Iran war turned the green city of Al-Faw, which was a main agricultural centre into a playground for military activities," Husayn Ali Jasim, the head of the Water Resources Office in Basra and its main agricultural engineer, told IRIN. He said that Al-Faw in particular was almost completely devastated, because it was close to Iran. Its population fled when the Iranians invaded and occupied the area for five years. Husayn went on to say that the ministry of irrigation had started trying to rehabilitate the area after the war ended in 1988, but farmers never again trusted the regime, which they believed was more interested in war than anything else. According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Iraq's agricultural sector has deteriorated significantly in the 1990s, due to a lack of investment and shortages of essential inputs. Although the agricultural sector had contributed relatively little to the economy before the 1991 Gulf War, it subsequently played an increasingly important role. In the face of the serious import supply constraints brought about by the sanctions imposed after the war, the government implemented a number of measures aimed at achieving greater food self-sufficiency. However, much of the country remains dependent on food aid. So far this year, there has been a very successful harvest in Iraq with an estimated 4.12 mt of cereal crop, 22 percent higher than last year's. This was due to favourable rains in the north, increased irrigation and timely distribution of agricultural inputs in the main producing areas, primarily in the south and centre. An FAO mission to Iraq in June and July this year found that about 55 percent of the population was poor, and 44 percent currently food insecure. The Public Distribution System operated under the Oil-for-Food programme has been providing food for the country's entire population of about 26.3 million. There are no estimates for the next harvest, due in the spring. "This is the start of the planting season, so it is too early to say what is expected for next year. This will depend on the weather, rainfall and water available in rivers," an FAO economist, Shukri Ahmed, told IRIN from Rome. Meanwhile, according to FAO, the severe deterioration of the water and sanitation system in Iraq is still of great concern. Drinking water, irrigation, water-logging, salinity and sewage disposal are key to the future of agricultural productivity and public health, the FAO said. "It is recommended that high priority be given to sustainable rehabilitation of the water and sanitation system, otherwise waterborne diseases will remain a major problem despite improved food availability," it added. According to Husayn, the Ministry of Water Resources has launched a pilot project to dredge some 180 rivers and rehabilitate the destroyed irrigation system so as to make the fields of Al-Faw green again. The first phase started at the beginning of December and will cost US $755,000 to clear the rivers of silt and rehabilitate the agricultural land ruined by the Iraqi army during the war with Iran. The rivers will bring back the water to the land, but poor farmers are waiting to borrow money to buy seeds and machinery. "There are no services around, electricity comes for six hours during the night as looters continue to steal the cables," Ka'bi said.