Another dry year means bad harvest for Iraq

  Updated 2:00 AM ET July 12, 2000

  By Hassan Hafidh

  HADITHA, Iraq, July 12 (Reuters) - The highway from
  Baghdad to the farming land of Haditha, northwest of the
  capital, bears testimony to the destruction of Iraq's agricultural
  sector.

  For miles on end, both sides of the road have turned into
  junkyards, with rusty tractors, trucks and farm equipment
  rotting away in the swamps.

  Farmers have abandoned their farms in this town and the
  surrounding district, once known for its high crop yield. For
  two consecutive years, the area has witnessed very dry
  weather with almost no rain at all.

  Dlaiyan Ibrahim, like many farmers in Haditha, used to plant
  wheat each winter.

  Now he has started trading in sheep to feed his family of eight.
  Each week he takes the sheep 260 km (160 miles) to
  Baghdad.

  "There has been no rain this year and the last. The land is so
  dry that it is impossible to plant anything," Dlaiyan said.

  "I started buying sheep from other farmers and I take them to
  Baghdad to sell them in order to make a living for my family,"
  he added.

  One consequence of the drought, that has depleted fodder
  supplies and grazing land, is that Iraqi farmers are selling cattle
  and sheep in large numbers, bringing down the prices of beef
  and mutton.

  A kilo (2.2 lbs) of mutton has dropped to 2,000 dinars (about
  $1) from nearly 3,000 dinars three months ago. Beef is selling
  at 2,250 dinars a kilo against 3,250 dinars.

  Dlaiyan said that he now sells a sheep for 26,000 dinars, just
  over half of what it would have fetched in April.

  A group of farmers from the northern province of Mosul,
  Iraq's main cereal production area, appealed to the
  government earlier this month to lend them money to pay
  accumulated loans they took out from local banks earlier this
  year to finance their wheat and barley planting. The poor
  harvest means they cannot pay these loans back.

  Their appeal, published by the influential newspaper Babel,
  said that they would have to sell their houses in order to pay
  back the banks if the government did not help them.

  MOST SEVERE DROUGHT IN 100 YEARS

  Iraqi and U.N. officials predict Iraq will suffer an even worse
  drought this year than last. They say the situation is
  exacerbated by international sanctions imposed after
  Baghdad's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

  They said the drought would have a devastating impact on
  crops and animal production.

  "Iraq has been hit by the most severe drought ever recorded
  in the past 100 years," said Amir Khalil, the U.N. Food and
  Agriculture Organisation (FAO) representative in Iraq.

  Khalil said the drought was expected to destroy 75 percent of
  Iraq's harvest this year.

  Statistics on crop production are a closely guarded secret in
  Iraq. No forecast is available for this year's harvest but it is
  expected to be very low as there was little rain during the
  winter.

  A recent report by the FAO said Iraqi wheat production had
  decreased to 1.06 million tonnes in 1997 from 1.24 million
  tonnes in 1995.

  Iraq needs more than three million tonnes of wheat to feed its
  population of 23 million each year. It imports the rest of its
  wheat needs under an oil-for-food deal with the United
  Nations.

  LACK OF EQUIPMENT AND FERTILISERS

  Khalil said drought this year had even affected the water levels
  in the country's two twin rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates.

  "The total water flow into all Iraqi rivers recorded during
  1998-99 and 1999-2000 was as low as 40 percent of the
  normal annual average before the drought," he said.

  The Iraqi government says the water situation has been
  exacerbated by upstream dams built by neighbouring Turkey,
  which have reduced the flow of the two rivers.

  Agriculture Ministry Undersecretary Basil Dalali said last
  month that lack of equipment and fertilisers would also
  contribute to a poor harvest this year.

  Dalali accused a U.N. sanctions committee of delaying
  contracts to buy 3,700 water-spraying machines that his
  country sought to obtain under the oil-for-food deal, under
  which the world body allows Iraq to sell oil for humanitarian
  aid such as food and medicine.

  The FAO says the committee has released $143 million worth
  of agricultural equipment out of $449 million allocated by the
  government for the irrigation sector.

  Before the sanctions, Iraq imported 70 percent of its food
  needs. Under the U.N. embargo it launched a big drive for
  self-sufficiency, rehabilitating rural infrastructure, cultivating
  more land, digging giant canals and increasing farm prices.

  A rationing system under the oil-for-food programme has
  staved off mass famine, but provides little more than a half a
  family's food needs.

  The drought has been a further blow to Iraqi livestock already
  hit by foot and mouth disease.

  Dalali said nearly one million head of livestock hit by foot and
  mouth disease had died last year because of a lack of
  vaccines and fodder.

  The FAO says that 60 percent of Iraq's chicken farms were
  affected by various diseases. It says that only 527 poultry
  farms out of 8,500 are operational at present.

  The industry, which before the Gulf War, used to produce 85
  eggs and 12.5 kg (27.5 lbs) of meat per person a year is now
  able to provide just an annual 10 eggs and 1.5 kg (3.3 lbs) of
  meat per person.