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Yahoo! My Yahoo! Mail Yahoo! Search Search: Sign InNew User? Sign Up News Home - Help Navigation Primary Navigation Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Top Stories Most Popular Secondary Navigation Africa Europe Latin America Middle East North America Search Search: Iraq's ailing farm sector more crucial than ever Reuters - Sunday, March 1 By Missy Ryan ADVERTISEMENT AMARA, Iraq - Iraq, once a bread basket for the Middle East, should look to farming as a lifeline as a sharp plunge in oil revenue threatens efforts to rebuild from years of war, Iraqi officials say. But while the agricultural sector is Iraq's second biggest industry after oil, it accounts for just 8 percent of overall economic output after decades of neglect, international sanctions, underinvestment and decay. Iraq's farm sector was once the envy of many of its arid neighbours in the 1950s. Today it imports the bulk of its food. Farmers lack suitable irrigation, proper seeds and modern equipment. Farm labour has been drained by flight to cities, high soil salinity stifles productivity, and sectarian bloodshed since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion has hindered improvements. The heart of the ancient world's fertile crescent, as it turns out, is not so fertile any more. To make things worse, Iraq is suffering from a major drought that has crippled production in rain-fed wheat and barley areas. This prompted the United Nations to name Iraq one of 32 countries requiring external aid in food supplies in 2009. Despite all this, the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki will need a far more robust farm sector if it is to create broad-based growth and stave off a renewed insurgency, which in the past has drawn heavily from unemployed youth. The violence of the past six years has finally begun to ease and the U.S. forces which toppled Saddam Hussein are preparing, gradually, to leave. But the growing stability is fragile and could easily be reversed if the demands of ordinary Iraqis for jobs, better living conditions and prosperity are not met. Maliki and other officials are making increasingly urgent calls to diversify Iraq's economy, which depends almost entirely on a single commodity -- oil -- to fill state coffers and pay policemen, pave roads and keep the lights on in hospitals. When oil prices are high, as they were last summer at $147 a barrel, that seemed a blessing. But with oil hovering around $40 a barrel, it has become an emergency. "We have become dependent on oil and gas because of the massive setbacks in the agricultural and industrial sectors," Maliki said during an oil conference on Friday. SPENDING CUTS Iraq has cut 2009 spending plans from $80 billion to $62 billion due to falling oil prices. Even the current plans may be unachievable as they are based on oil prices of $50 a barrel. Maliki has launched a $200 million initiative to reenergise the farm sector. The government is subsidising the sale of seeds and providing support for livestock and date palm industries. Yet the sector may need far more money, over many years, and a host of tools like pivot sprinklers, cold storage, and crop varieties that can flourish in dry conditions. "Much of the agricultural sector is dysfunctional or outright broken," said Jon Melhus, an agriculture adviser to the U.S. provincial reconstruction team in southeastern Maysan province. "The lack of education and essential services, especially electricity, modern irrigation and drainage practices, transportation ... greatly limit Iraq's ability to compete." Abdel Hussein al-Saidi, Maysan's deputy governor, called for greater aid from the central government, echoing the cries of provincial officials in every sector across the country. "The farm sector is the foundation for developing the entire country. Everything else rests on it," he said. Maysan, like other parts of southern Iraq, suffers from severe salinity, which turns vast expanses of land into white powdery salt, supporting only shrubby brush. It has been a problem for thousands of years, but it is exacerbated by south-flowing irrigation that boosts downstream salt levels and flood irrigation that leaves salt on the soil. Nassir al-Alami, Maysan's top farm official, said salinity had reduced productivity in some areas by three-quarters. Iraq is now aiming to reclaim 6 million acres of salinated land. Yet given the lack of resources, hopes of transforming the farm sector quickly into an engine of growth may be in vain. "The combination of reduced budgets due to the decline in world oil prices, corruption, and bureaucratic inefficiencies poses enormous challenges," said Dan Foote, who heads U.S. reconstruction efforts in Maysan. Email Story IM Story Printable View Blog This Recommend this article Average (0 votes) Sign in to recommend this article » Most Recommended Stories » Related Articles: World Harvard to restore FDR's student suiteAP - 44 minutes ago Top Syria-based Hamas leader secretly visits GazaAP - 44 minutes ago Police cite breast-feeding driver for endangeringAP - 51 minutes ago Mideast peace, Russian ties next up for ClintonAP - 56 minutes ago Italian trial: shoeprint found under victim's bodyAP - 57 minutes ago Most Popular – World Viewed Supermodel Bundchen ties knot with football star Brady RBS posts record British loss, offloads toxic assets Obama drives reform with 3.55-trillion-dollar budget US economy shrinks stunning 6.2 percent US to take $25 billion stake in Citigroup View Complete List » Search: Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Top Stories Most Popular Copyright © 2009 Yahoo! Southeast Asia Pte Ltd. (Co. Reg. No. 199700735D). 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