More details of Bauer Irrigation Contract in Iraq

By John Lee.

Iraq's Ministry of Agriculture has issued more details of the major contract it has signed with the Austrian company Bauer, a maker of irrigation equipment.

A spokesperson told state-run Iraqi News Agency (INA):

• The Ministry announced a contract for 12,000 pivot sprinklers to be delivered this year.
• The value of the purchase is 835 billion dinars [$638 million].
• The European Union donated $300 million for 6,000 axial sprinklers.
• The government will provide them to farmers at a subsidized price of 30 percent, payable in installments over 10 years.
• These 12,000 sprinklers will provide irrigation for approximately one million dunams [100,000 hectares], contributing increasing wheat production.
• They will be used in newly reclaimed desert lands, where they will increase the productivity of the land by no less than 50 percent.

(Source: INA)