Saturday, Dec. 27, 2008

Seeds of Hope for Iraqis

Iraqis return to farms, despite daunting tasks

BABIL PROVINCE, Iraq -- Mansour Abdul Kadhim's mix of winter crops gives every impression of abundance despite the double threat of drought and violence that has plagued Iraqi agriculture since Saddam Hussein's fall in 2003.

Rows of red potatoes and green beans grow together in one lot. Winter wheat sprouts in adjacent fields. Tomatoes for the spring already are incubating in mounds of fertilizer.

Kadhim is optimistic scanning the fields, not least because the days of government mandates for wheat production appear to have fallen to the wayside. He thinks that will give him more opportunities to earn extra money by selling more valuable vegetables.

"I am not restrained by any government condition. I am free to use the land the way I want it," said Kadhim, 37, whose family has farmed in this rural area south of Baghdad for decades.

Kadhim is taking advantage of a drop in violence to rebuild decrepit canals and boost his farm's production as part of a 700-member agricultural cooperative, a trend that many hope will amplify across the country to bolster employment and restore Iraq's status as a historic breadbasket for the Middle East.

As Kadhim's farm shows, Babil province -- once known as part of the "Triangle of Death" -- could be a sort of salad bowl for Iraq if the peace holds and farmers are able to invest in their land.

"They could turn Babil province into an agricultural center like the Fresno valley," said Patrick Broyles, a U.S. Department of Agriculture adviser from Emporia, Kan., who is working in the region around Kad-him's farm.

That prospect is about a decade off in the best of circumstances, said several American agricultural experts who have worked in the country since 2003. They're working to support the agricultural sector because it's a vital employer, accounting for as much as a quarter of jobs in the country.

Good climate, soil still there

The country benefits from a 10-month growing season, good soil and two rivers that have supported farming in Iraq for thousands of years, the Tigris and Euphrates.

"The basic system for agriculture is there; it's just in shambles" said Joseph King, a project leader for studies on Iraqi farming conducted by Texas A&M University's Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture

Tough obstacles that could keep Iraq importing its food well into the future include:

Shortages of electricity and fuel that keep farmers from pumping water out of wells

Poor systems to deliver water from the Euphrates and Tigris to farms. Kadhim's area is served by one main canal constructed by the British in the 1930s and another in poor condition built by a Turkish company about 30 years ago. Both need continual maintenance, Kad-him said.

Depleted seed and livestock supplies, hindered first by the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s and then by U.N. sanctions after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait through the 1990s. "Basically, with every crop grown in Iraq, there are better varieties that could be grown," Broyles said.

Inefficient drainage on many farms that allows salt to build up over time, ruining the soil

A shortage of border security agents who could prevent Syrian, Iranian or Turkish imports from flooding Iraqi markets and jeopardizing the profitability of Iraqi crops.

Those challenges are so severe that U.S. and Iraqi officials are chipping away at them instead of tackling them whole.

"In six months, we're not going to change that," said Edwin Price, director of the Borlaug Institute. "In three years, we're not going to change it."