Hawraman goes nuts
By Darya Ibrahim
The Soma paper - Issue
No.16 (11/18/2006)
http://www.soma-digest.com/Details.asp?sid=46&stp=5
Among the mountainous
borders of the Slemani
province lies the Hawraman
area, which has its own
dialect of Kurdish, known as
Hawrami. The area is famous
for its walnut trees, which
for many years have brought
wealth to the people of
Hawraman.
In the Hawrami village of
Tawella, the residents spoke
of how before the Iran- Iraq
war the walnut groves
produced unimaginable
numbers of walnuts, but that
after the war due to
extensive bombing of the
region many of the large
(and more productive) trees
were fatally damaged
severely reducing the yield
of most walnut groves.
Despite this, a few people
continued to cultivate the
walnut groves and production
is slowly starting to
recover. Before the
Iran-Iraq war, we had trees
in this area which yielded
700kg of walnuts each, but
because of bombing our
groves we lost so many
trees, the groves just cant
produce like before, says
Nasir Mohammed, 48, who owns
one of the largest walnut
groves in Hawraman.
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It takes several years to
cultivate a walnut tree,
from seed to sapling,
sapling to mature tree.
Walnut trees can only be
grown on land that is at
least 1,200-1,500 meters
above sea-level, and while
they need sunlight all year
round, until it is time for
the walnut to ripen and the
green shell to crack, the
tree requires a very low
temperature, which makes
Hawraman with its
mountainous landscape an
ideal growing place. Dyari
Tofeq, 42, a gardener at one
of the walnut groves, says
that there are various ways
in which to grow walnut
trees and that the ministry
of agriculture should help
them find the most
productive method to use in
Hawraman.
It is the agricultural
ministry's job to care about
planting walnut in these
areas, if we want to produce
the same number of walnuts
as before then they must
help us with new farming
techniques.
It seems as though nobody
cares, too many people who
had great walnut groves
either they sold their lands
and moved to Slemani now or
they neglected their groves,
its such as shame, says
Tofeq.
The farmers still harvest
the walnuts in the
traditional way by beating
the walnut trees with
branches from willow trees.
The walnuts are famous
throughout the region and
are sold in markets in
cities and towns throughout
the Kurdish region.. Many
other traditions surrounding
the walnut harvest are still
practiced. When the harvest
arrives all the neighbors
will help in harvesting the
walnuts, then in the evening
everyone will gather in
somebodys house and while
singing traditional Hawrami
songs and chants will eat
some of the walnuts they
have harvested that day,
says Mohammed.
The migration of villagers
to the cities and the
devastation of war are not
the only problems that have
faced walnut growers in
recent years. Between 2000
and 2003 the Hawraman area
was occupied by Jund Al
Islam (latterly known as
Ansar Al Islam). This forced
many more walnut farmers to
abandon their walnut groves,
which further damaged the
already reduced yield of the
Hawrami walnut, which is
famous for its softer shell
that can be cracked by hand
and its unique taste.
In the last few years the
yield has started to
increase again. Now every
walnut tree gets 2000
walnuts that are about 25
kg, which is more than last
year. Hopefully with a
little bit of help and more
re-planting over the next
few years we will be able to
continue increasing the
yield- maybe one day we
might even have trees that
produce 700kg again! says a
hopeful Mohammed.