A farmer from Zubair, Salman al-Salihi, said tomatoes from Basra used to supply all of the country’s needs, around seven months a year. “But [after 2003] the government didn’t consider tomatoes a strategic crop and didn’t support the tomato farmers,” he said. “So ever since 2003, we have been suffering losses continuously.”
The local government denies this. It says it helps local farmers but that this help is now less tangible. It subsidises seeds and fertilizer by as much as 60 percent and provides farmers with cheap loans to invest in agricultural land. Disher says that the local government plans to introduce a pest management scheme as well as a new species of drought-and-saline resistant tomato. They also plan to establish palm tree laboratories and provide locals with special training around these crops, he adds.
What is certain is that before 2003, the Baath party-led government used to buy a 30kg box of tomatoes from farmers for around IQD15,000 (about US$12). Now the same box is sold for IQD3,000 (about US$2.5). And that price change has been a shock for farmers.
Another issue for Basra’s agricultural sector is the fact that huge tracts of farm land are being used for purposes other than agricultural. Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s regime destroyed thousands of hectares of palm and vegetable plantations in order to set up dangerous mine fields. The same regime also drove farmers, who were seen as opposing Hussein, out of their homes in the southern marshlands and south of Iraq. According to state officials, around 1 million out of the 2.7 million who live in Basra now came to the area from further south and many of these people settled on former agricultural land, transforming it into residential.
That immigration into Basra continues today because according to Disher, the state hosts some of the most important industrial and commercial projects in Iraq and its capital, also called Basra, is one of the richest cities in the country.
The local government has tried to prevent urban sprawl, by relying on laws against the misuse of what is intended to be agricultural land. Local legislation says that the land, allocated for agriculture, should be planted. “If not, then the government has the right to confiscate the land,” Disher explained. However, as Disher said, the government has not even begun to act upon these laws because “of political and social pressure and influential investors”. And all of that is further complicated by the fact that many of the farms around the Abu al-Khasib and Shatt al-Arab districts are owned by citizens of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Alaa Hashim al-Badran, head of the union of agricultural engineers in Basra, feels that part of the problem is due to a “sharp transition from a controlled, communist-style system to a more free capitalist system.” And all this has happened, al-Badran says, while old fashioned and overly bureaucratic practices still hold sway over government departments.
“There are some officials and cadres who have spent more than 30 years working in some of the agricultural departments,” he argues. “Rotating responsibilities and introducing new blood would be a good way of overcoming these bureaucratic hurdles and combating corruption.”
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