Page 28 - AA 2023 Year Book Website

Iraq

EARLY SEASON DRYNESS IN NORTH, ABOVE

AVERAGE RAINFALL ELSEWHERE

While climatic and geographic condi- cluding Ninewa Province, reached about lands, the 2023 plan endorses cultiva-
tions are conducive to agricultural pro- 80 percent of the average, but it was suf- tion on 625 000 hectares. The measure
duction, the country continues to face ficient to facilitate sowing operations. aims to increase domestic wheat pro-
structural problems of water scarcity However, sustained rainfall amounts in duction in light of the elevated interna-
due to consecutive seasons of erratic February and March are needed to en- tional prices and concerns about tighter
rainfall and decreases in transboundary sure an adequate crop development. availability on the global markets, par-
river flows, limiting water availability for According to the latest seasonal weather ticularly following the war in Ukraine.
irrigation. forecast for the January to March 2023 The increase in wheat area is likely to be
period, rainfall amounts in the north are compensated by a decrease in the area
The planting of winter cereal crops, expected to be below average. planted with barley.
for harvest from April 2023, was com-
pleted in December. Although cumula- No shortages of inputs for crop pro- Below average 2022 cereal
tive rainfall between October 2022 and duction are reported. However, farmers
mid January 2023 reached average lev- complain of delayed payments for the harvest due to drought and
els, amounts varied across the country. grains harvested in 2022 that were de- policy decisions
The first significant rainfall covering livered to the Ministry of Trade’s silos.
almost the entire the country was re- Delayed payments are constraining cash Unfavourable rainfall in terms of
corded in November and, in some ar- flows and limiting farmers’ ability to pur- amounts and distribution constrained
eas, it reached three times the long term chase inputs and services. domestic cereal production from the
average. Abundant rains in December Despite erratic rainfall in the main rainfed areas in 2022. The Central Statis-
and early January occurred in central rainfed cereal producing areas in 2021 tical Organization (CSO) estimated the
and southern parts of the country where and 2022, and the widespread scarcity of 2022 cereal harvest at 3.2 million tonnes,
crops usually require supplementary irrigation water across the country, the almost 40 percent below the near aver-
irrigation. While ample rainfall at least Ministry of Water Resources approved age harvest obtained in 2021, including
partially replenished reservoirs in more wheat cultivation on a total of 1 million 2.7 million tonnes of wheat and 144 000
arid regions, it also triggered flash hectares in 2023, up from 750 000 hect- tonnes of barley. The official produc-
floods. The October December rainfall ares planted in 2022. On the irrigated tion estimates by the CSO for the past
in the rainfed cereal belt in the north, in- years do not include the Kurdistan Re-
gion (KRI) and some villages in Ninewa,
Kirkuk, Diyala, Anbar and Salah Al Din
governorates. According to KRI authori-
ties, production of the 2022 wheat crop is
estimated at 400 000 tonnes, down about
45 percent year on year and the aver-
age, and about one quarter of the excep-
tional output harvested in 2020.

The overall decline of the 2022 cereal
production was due to drought condi-
tions in rainfed areas, particularly in
Ninewa Province, but also to the policy
decision to halve the area planted with
irrigated crops in an effort to reduce
water demand, amidst increasing water
scarcity. The Ninewa Province, where
about one quarter of the country’s wheat
output was produced in the past, has ex-
perienced a second consecutive crop
failure in 2022, when less than 15 per-
cent of the total area planted with wheat
was harvested.
Farmers adhering to the national an-
nual agricultural plan are eligible to re-
ceive subsidized inputs, such as seeds,
fertilizers and pesticides. Since 2021, the
level of subsidies has declined, while
in the past 70 percent of the seed costs
were subsidized, current rate is 30 per-

26 Arab Agriculture 2023