By Ronald P Verdonk, Agricultural Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Continuing with the theme of my last blog, I want to address other areas that the Iraqi public sector can tackle so that Iraqi agriculture can be more productive. In this day and age, a critical component of public policy decision-making is data […]
By Ronald P Verdonk, Agricultural Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. In my last piece I made mention of a sizable irrigation equipment purchase by Iraq’s Ministry of Agriculture and underscored the role the private sector needs to play to contribute to the revitalization of the agricultural sector. In this edition of the blog, […]
By Ronald P Verdonk, Agricultural Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. At this point in late March/early April, Iraq would benefit from additional moisture in order for its winter wheat to fill out and further develop. Already, given the regional drop in precipitation through the growing season compared to a year ago, irrigation supplies […]
By Ronald P Verdonk, Agricultural Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Looking at Iraqi agriculture over the past year, relatively abundant rainfall in late 2009 and through the first quarter of 2010 led to bumper 2010 wheat and barley crops. With last year’s domestic wheat harvest at just over 2.5 million metric tons and […]
By Ronald P Verdonk, Agricultural Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Iraqi agriculture, like other sectors of the economy, has a lot of catching up to do in order to create jobs and play a more significant role in boosting GNP. Production of grain, vegetables and fruit faces a range of challenges of which […]
