Shafaq News- Baghdad
Iraq will release 500 billion dinars ($382.2M) in overdue payments to farmers during September, Finance Minister Faleh Al-Sari announced on Sunday, following months of protests over delayed agricultural dues.
Al-Sari said the Finance Ministry would also continue settling farmers’ payments in the coming months until all outstanding dues are cleared.
The minister did not specify which agricultural seasons the payments will cover, how the funds will be distributed among provinces, or when the remaining outstanding dues will be fully paid. According to parliamentary Agriculture and Water Committee member Falih Al-Khazali, farmers who had delivered their crops were owed 1.5 trillion dinars ($1.15B) as of September 7.
Hundreds of farmers from several Iraqi provinces demonstrated outside the Finance Ministry in Baghdad on August 18 over unpaid dues for wheat sold to the state. At least 17 others were injured on May 3 when security forces used water cannons and electric stun devices to disperse farmers from central and southern provinces who marched toward Baghdad’s Green Zone demanding overdue payments and changes to wheat pricing, according to the General Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations.