(Note: Improvements to the translation are needed)
Deputy of Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture: We will present agricultural land for private investment both domestic and foreign
Translated by IRAQdirectory.com - [1/9/2010]
Deputy of Ministry of Agriculture, Ghazi al-Aboudi, revealed that the agricultural sector is suffering a lot of problems related to lack of water irrigation, desertification and shrinking arable land «and the dependence of our market on neighboring countries which, threatening our food , and the decline in the number of palm trees from 31 million to less than 8 million All these problems will be resolved only by our Declaration of land to private investment, domestic and foreign ».
And al-Aboudi said to « Al Sharq Al Awsat » and about the step on Iraq's declaration of its territory for foreign investment , that «this project, we began to think, is not now, but years ago, and prepared a lot of research about it translated to the proposals and submitted to the Prime Minister, and finally approved the project, which will be announced by the Ministry fn the beginning of next month in a major global conference », pointing out that Iraq will achieve several goals of this step, the most important food security,« Our biggest problem, before that our country was a source of food, crops, and especially The Strategic, we import even the simplest kinds of vegetables, and the second is the elimination of unemployment suffered by the rural population in particular, if we know that they are a third of the population of Iraq, and they started , because of the policies of the former regime, in the migration of rural labor to other sectors, it is very difficult now to return, and to bring in foreign capital to the agricultural sector which need it and also the international experience ».
The matter on the areas that will provide for investment, that «all the land suitable for investment for a first stage, we categorized into three classes, so as these problems no problems with others, and a second minor problems can be resolved through coordination with the Government, and type III is suffering from problems that can't Start investing with them, and here will be class I and Class II ». He confirmed that the Ministry received very wide offers of investment by Arab and foreign investors and local as well.
And on the Iraqi agricultural investments outside Iraq, there are information on the purchase of Iraq during the former regime of vast lands in other states, the agent said «Yes, there are Iraqi investments in many countries, but managed by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Trade, such as the cultivation of tea in Vietnam and rubber plantations .. and, there are investment projects in the form of a joint venture between Iraq and Arab and foreign countries, and is now working normally and imports of good financial advantage ».
And the problem of desertification, he said «that Iraq loses 5% of its territory each year due to encroachment of the desert and the high salinity of the water, and our experience of modern treatment of these problems, we have opened new horizons to the world to help us in the matter as an international problem, and some welcomed it, but entering Iraq is not simple ».
On the subject of water with neighboring countries and reduce the impact on agriculture, he said «It is a very complicated subject, because Turkey has agreements with all the riparian States except Iraq, and this old problem since the inception of the Iraqi state, as well as our problem with Iran, as a ministry of Agriculture we made a memorandum of understanding the past mid-year with Syria for the rational management of the Euphrates River, we have information that the water comes from Syria, where pollution rates are high, and discussed with Egypt their experience to reduce water use with the Jordanian side as well ».
And on Turkey's agricultural investment in Iraq in return for an increase in quotas of water, he said «It is the trump card we offer to Turkey and offer inducements, It is good so, Turkey, come and invest in agricultural land, in return, increase the water».
Pointing out , to increase awareness of the importance of the subject when the Iraqi farmer who is still not convinced of the importance of rationalizing water consumption, using modern techniques, and «I personally spoke with a large part of them and they told me that the extension of the idea of drip irrigation systems are not convincing , and this problem must be solved, and actually proceeded to correct some of the information to the Iraqi peasant, and began to use sophisticated mechanisms, and we hope next year that uses ( modern irrigation methods) are more prevalent in Iraq, in addition to guide us to use alternatives because of its low import of water from Turkey, Iran and Syria, including the adoption of wells and groundwater, and an Iraqi Researcher provided a device for water desalination and the Ministry of Agriculture supported the project to eliminate the problem of salinity of water.
And on the decline in the number of palm said «that Iraq was holding more than 31 million Palm and left of them only 8 million, mostly poor and unproductive as the first result of the wars and dredging and neglect, and here our work to promote the cultivation of palm trees so we launched an initiative to buy dates at double price, the Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said: buy dates from the farmer, even if you can't find a place for storage. But the results exceeded expectation, for the demand for Iraqi dates outside of Iraq, and started as a ministry in the process of export and recycling dates over traders and industrialists, and gave them loans, and this is called the philosophy of the initiative is the creation of agricultural bridges of confidence between the government and the farmer.
The problem of the Ministry of Agriculture, with farm associations, and why the exclusion of these associations, it said «We did not wave them off, on the contrary there is collaboration, a civil society organization, but based on the guidance of the Minister, which will select to work with are actually registered in the civil society organizations, and sometimes telling some of the issues and imagine the result of a circumstance of Iraq's past that they are substitute for the government, and speak with the mentality of the employee, and here and forwarded them to live as an organization and not to become heavier on the Ministry of Agriculture, and pass everything in its way, but you are united efforts and as a liaison between the government and the farmer and the achievement of cooperation.
And about the U.S. customizations of Iraq's agriculture, including allocations Organization USAID said that she spent in Iraq about three billion dollars .. On this matter said «This is properly filed pursuant to organizations in Iraq, but it's not that big, being an organizations operating according to contexts and conditions, and when they come, they work at mentalities far from reality of the Iraqi clash, as I expect that Iraqi society is tribal, and refuses the Iraqi farmers to bring before him an Americans or Italians or British, but we do not deny that they collaborated with us in the studies and research and funding, but not huge, and we opened the doors of the Ministry for them and for cooperation ».
The «Iraqi government gave great importance to this sector for one reason, which is a very important food security, and here was interest in agriculture and agricultural use since its launch in 2008 and was allocated $ 500 million, as lending operations were launched for farmers and large facilities which are the largest in all the world, loans without interest, and repayment over a long period and simple routine , and we provide the farmer with all kinds of fertilizers at subsidized prices from the government, which is less than the cost of purchase, not to mention the agricultural machinery and sold by installments and without placing the burden on farmers, and even machines distributed free of charge and we have equipped the role of the channels irrigation fields and the establishment of animal husbandry and pest control operations for free and vaccination campaigns and vaccination ..
the current government's support for farmers is much greater than the previous political support systems, now support absolute, and there is nothing related to agriculture is not supported, and even purchase the crops we buy products from farmers at double price from the market, and the successes recorded in the purchase dates from the farmer and twheat and barley and rice.Prepared & Translated By:IRAQdirectory.comTeam
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