In Iraq in general and Kurdistan in particular, agriculture has always been important. The term agriculture comes from the Greek word agro meaning “the soil” or “a field”.

In Iraq in general and Kurdistan in particular, agriculture has always been important. The term agriculture comes from the Greek word agro meaning “the soil” or “a field”. Agriculture begins with the land, and in Kurdistan the land is very fertile. The land itself, like the people who live on it, has a history. Kurdistan’s fertile soil developed over thousands and thousands of years.

Some 50 years or so ago, almost all agricultural products, all types of groceries, meat, poultry, dairy products etc., were all produced locally. These products were all brought in from the countryside and villages. Farmers tended land with very primitive faming tools, planted their seeds in the autumn and collected their products in the summer. What was extra to their requirements, they brought into the towns and cities, sold them in the markets with which they purchased what they required and took them back to their homes and families. They also brought in eggs, timber and coal for sale. In the summer they brought in groceries, tomatoes, and fruits. They transported all these things on donkeys and mule. The roads were unpaved and difficult and there were very few trucks around.

Though farmers were not really educated on product information, nor did they have any knowledge of genetic engineering or genetic improvement as today, but what soil preparation and fertilization information they picked up from their elders they related to their next generation. Moreover, the government agricultural department constantly supervised and guided farmers in implementing a simple traceability system to manage the information related to individual agricultural products. These efforts were effective aids to farmers to increase productivity by reducing crop damage from weeds, diseases or insects. They also helped with various crop protection methods and solutions, including herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, plant regulators and seed technologies that offered a satisfactory level of crop protection. This by and large, enabled Kurdish farms to produce the food that fed the people rather nicely.

In those days, in addition to the grain shovel, the plough was the most important piece of equipment on a farm. It was used to break up and turn soil for planting crops. Perhaps a whole day was required to plough an acre of land with a moldboard plough. Often a farmer would not personally own a plough. It was normally owned by the village chieftain who would hire it out to the farmers in exchange for labor or part of the harvest.

The shepherd cared for the sheep on the mountains, plains and in the valleys. He gathered the sheep early in the morning and took them grazing till late in the afternoon when on return they would know which houses to go back to. There were many different breeds of sheep in Kurdistan. The shepherd's job was not easy. Sheep are like babies, helpless and weak. They get sick and easily need constant care. The shepherd had to look after them very well.

The health teams frequently carried out campaigns against malaria and so on which were very prevalent then among villagers. The vets, few though they were, helped in guiding and providing vaccines for the livestock. The few agricultural engineers that were available were always on the run in helping to diagnose crop diseases and boost the immune system of plants so as to help farmers to turn in product quality. In this way, people carried on with their lives. They were both happy and content.

However, as the years went by farmers could have progressed into a modern system to produce not only wheat and barley but sugar, soybean, cotton, sunflower, potatoes as well as others. But they were not encouraged and were displaced and treated very inhumanly. This barbaric process did not take long for it to have its heavy toll on every aspect of agricultural products.

Though, nowadays roads, bridges and communications are much easier and advanced, but regrettably in view of the past events of our country, many of the original countryside inhabitants have not returned to their farming and agricultural activities. This has resulted in drastic lessening of their agricultural and farming products and leaving behind all those sources of water supply and fertile land insufficiently utilized. This has resulted in importing all our requirements of animal products, poultry, eggs, groceries, household items, clothes, and fuels from abroad – which in turn has caused continuous harm and loss to our economy, thereby draining our hard-currency and increasing unemployment, particularly among the youth. It has also turned us from a producer nation to a consumer one.

Everyone agrees that for Kurdistan to feel viable and self-sufficient, it needs to revive its effective capacity for producing a safe and sufficient food supply that is grown in an environmentally responsible fashion, which is essential for its inhabitants, if not even able to export its surplus.

anwarqaradaghi2003@yahoo.co.uk