Plans to raise the contribution of agriculture in the national product to 20%

Shafaq News / The Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture confirmed, on Tuesday, that it is seeking to increase its contribution to national production to 20%, revealing that there is a plan to export fish abroad, after the export of hundreds of tons of agricultural crops recently.

The Iraqi government is struggling to diversify sources of income and not limit its revenues from the sale of oil, which makes up about 98 percent of the country's expenditures.

Iraq has been suffering from a financial crisis, as Oil prices dropped after COVID-19 cases surge, which has crippled large sectors of the world economy.

Ministry spokesman Hamid Al-Nayef told Shafaq News agency, "Iraq has again started heading towards agriculture, especially after the return of the displaced people to their original areas of residence, doubling the number of cultivated areas". 

Iraq had recently announced that it reached self-sufficiency in wheat for the second year in a row, with production reaching about 5 million tons during the current season.

Al-Nayef added that “the ministry’s goal is to increase its contribution to the national product from 4% (previously) to 18-20%, to increase state revenues and strengthen the farmers’ position by increasing the agricultural area". 

This summer, the Ministry of Agriculture banned the import of 28 kinds of vegetables, in addition to some animal products, for local availability.

In August 2008, the Iraqi government launched a comprehensive agricultural initiative to advance the agricultural situation in the country and set a ten-year time limit for Iraq to reach the stage self-sufficiency in strategic crops.

Iraq has suffered lately of the increase in the rate of desertification in most of its lands, due to the high prices of the agricultural supplies and the low incomes of the farmers, as well as the import of agricultural products from neighboring countries.