Baghdad – IA – Nassar Al-Hajj
Today, Saturday, the Prime Minister’s Advisor for Financial Affairs, Mazhar Muhammad Saleh, pointed out three positive factors for the success of the current 2024 grain season, while the season is considered an important and reassuring source of food security.
Saleh told the (INA), “The current 2024 grain crop production season is an important and reassuring source of food security in our country, which makes Iraq this year outside the group of countries most affected by the rise in food prices,” pointing out that “There are effective positive indicators that have helped stabilize production of strategic grains to reach their current annual production rates at unprecedented levels in terms of quantities, which will undoubtedly provide grain security in our country for at least a full year.”
He added, “Despite the problems of severe drought and desertification in previous years and the loss of approximately 200,000 dunums of good arable land due to desertification and water shortages annually,” he indicated that “at the forefront of the positive factors for the success of the current grain season is what follows – First: the availability of a year Humid in terms of the amount of rain falling, especially making the most of the autumn and winter rains in the Iraqi grain belt region, which are areas north of the rain line (Nineveh Governorate and parts of the Kurdistan region). The second: granting price concessions and distinct support to farmers from the state, especially those who use economical techniques in Water, such as sprinkler irrigation and other things, and the third factor: announcing an early policy of subsidizing grain prices, which encouraged farmers to ensure the optimal use of their agricultural land in order to maximize agricultural yields and cash returns.”
He noted that “the policy of supporting and supporting the agricultural sector financially and technically on the part of the government’s agricultural policy, with what is expected to be provided by the new water agreements with the neighboring country Turkey, in terms of water quotas, which will be the basis for confronting climate change and severe desertification and ensuring the water rights of Iraq, all of which will restore Agriculture in our country has a vital, historical role, which undoubtedly enables it to reach a promising agricultural future using high agricultural technologies, which makes Iraq perhaps a major exporter of grains and crops, so that our country can contribute to the scope of regional and international cooperation by taking its role in redrawing the maps for providing appropriate food rations to the population, within the framework of Global contribution to combating poverty, hunger and climate change in the world, which is a green policy that coincides with an effective carbon neutralization policy by expanding the country’s agricultural area in an economic manner.”