Agricultural Value Chain Study In Iraq

This report covers the process and results from the value chain analysis conducted on the dates, tomatoes and wheat sector in Iraq. The study presents the results of a cross-national market and gender-sensitive value chain analysis conducted in Iraq – and at different levels of the selected value chains including inputs suppliers, cultivators, harvesters, consolidators, and processors/exporters. The assessment establishes an information base to support the creation of livelihood opportunities in specific subsectors – which will ultimately support domestic food production and economic growth over the long term.

Prior to the oil booms of the 1950s and the 1970s, Iraq's agriculture experienced many decades of growth, thereby underpinning the development of the modern state and the class structure of the pre-1958 period. This book argues that, by the 1950s, the agricultural sector that had earlier been dynamic and export-oriented was already tending to stagnation before both the early oil boom and the radical land reform of 1958. The sector that had largely relied on renewable natural resources, indigenous technology and customary social organisation had given rise to highly iniquitous income and wealth distribution, and it became associated with an entrenched socio-political structure that resisted reform and failed to raise productivity. Mahdi's analysis of Iraq's pre-oil agriculture forms the background to the main part of this book that deals with the impact on agriculture and the country's economy of the large increases in oil revenues from the early 1950s until the eve of the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-8. The book places the rentier state and the different ways in which oil revenues affect the agricultural sector at the centre of an analysis of economic structure and performance. It offers a new interpretation of the stagnation and subsequent decline of agriculture, and rejects simple readings based on political and administrative failures of the agrarian reform in favour of a more nuanced analysis that also incorporates economic structure, organisation and policy.

Agriculture in Iraq - geographical aspects, system of land tenure and agrarian reform, agricultural products, agricultural machinery, agricultural policy (to develop crops and raise standard of living of rural area population). Rural cooperatives, credit, trade, role of USA (economic aid), role of ILO and UN and specialized agencies. 2 maps. Selected references pp. 72-74.

Mesopotamia, the ancient land of the "twin rivers" (the Tigris and Euphrates), with its bountiful land, fresh waters, and varying climates, contributed to the human civilization in many ways. The eastern limb of the Fertile Crescent was the cradle of the earliest known civilizations and served as the cultural heart from which the first ideas of sedentary agriculture, domestication of animals, the wheel, writing, and urban development are believed to have diffused westward to the Nile Valley and eastward to the Indus Valley. Since the beginning of recorded time, agriculture has been the primary economic activity of the people of old Mesopotamia and modern-day Iraq. Agriculture was the country's major economic activity in the 1920s; however, its contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) dropped to 42% in 1981 and 18% in 1990. Even so, 13% of the labor force continues to be engaged in agriculture, more than in any other sector except services. The land area of Iraq is 438,317 km2, with a population of 22.8 m and a population density of 52 per km2. Arable land as percentage of total land is relatively small (12%) and agriculture, in 2001, contributed 6.1% to the GDP. More than half (53%) of the arable land is rainfed, nearly all of it in the northern uplands; however, most of the agricultural production comes from the more intensively cultivated areas of the irrigated plains. In the decade from 1977, Iraq was self sufficient in cereals, and agricultural imports amounted to 22% of total imports. During recent decades, however, Iraq has shifted from net food exporter to food importer. This shift was prompted by several factors, including population increase, a rising standard of living, increased industrialization, migration of farm workers to urban centers, and loss of soil productivity in poorly drained irrigated areas of the south. Increased funding for agricultural research is particularly critical in Iraq. Despite this nation's heavy dependence on agriculture, the public expenditures on research generally total less than 0.5 percent of its agricultural gross domestic product. By comparison, industrialized countries spend 2 to 5 percent.

There is a strong imperative to rebuild Iraq’s agriculture sector as it is a major provider of employment and income in rural and peri-urban areas. This will allow for the return of millions of internally displaced people (IDP) in Iraq to their areas of origin, following the retaking of Iraqi areas that used to be under the control of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) – i.e. all or parts of the five affected governorates of Anbar, Diyala, Kirkuk, Ninewa and Salah al-Din. The impact of conflict caused by ISIL on the agriculture sector has been devastating and includes huge population movements, destruction of and damage to water systems, irrigation facilities and other agricultural infrastructure, disruption of value chains and losses of personal assets, crop and livestock production and food supplies. In response, the Government of Iraq has developed the Iraq Reconstruction and Development Framework (IRFD), which contributes to the Iraq Vision 2030 and National Development Plan (2018–2022). Guided by IRFD, Iraq’s United Nations Country Team (UNCT) formulated the Recovery and Resilience Programme (RRP), which prioritizes three (out of nine ) components to be implemented in the retaken areas with high priority: (i) preventing violent extremism; (ii) restoring communities; and (iii) restoring agriculture and water systems. The RRP was presented at the Kuwait International Conference for Iraq's Reconstruction in February 2018, which was jointly organized by the Government of Iraq, the World Bank and the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development.

This paper goes beyond the “business” case for agricultural value chain development and presents an economy-wide framework to make the “development” case. We show that there are several key transmission channels that determine the economy-wide impacts of promoting various value chains, including forward and backward economic linkages, price responses, and net employment effects. These impacts all matter for household incomes, poverty, and dietary diversity. Results for Egypt show that agricultural value chain development generates economy-wide growth as well as growth in the agri-food system, but the impacts on employment suggest that agricultural growth can create new (and better) jobs in and beyond the agri-food system, but not necessarily more jobs. The results also show that productivity-driven agricultural growth in all crops is pro-poor and improves nutrition. However, potential adverse effects of livestock-led growth show that growth acceleration in single sectors can be negative, highlighting the importance of a systems analysis or, in our case, an economy-wide analysis. It is clear that no single sub-sector is best at achieving all the development outcomes examined. Moreover, the ranking of value chains by their development outcomes differs across sub-national regions. As such, results from this paper may provide useful decision support for the government and its development partners to select value chains depending on their priority development outcomes.

Upon request of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) conducted this study to support USAID in assessing the state of empowerment and gender parity of men and women along the agricultural value chain in the Feed the Future (FTF) Zone of Influence (ZOI) in Bangladesh. Specifically, IFPRI’s Policy Research and Strategy Support Program (PRSSP), funded by USAID, piloted the modified Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) survey instruments in 10 upazilas (sub-districts) within the FTF ZOI across 1,200 households, which broadly belong to three economic activities of interest: (1) agricultural production, (2) agricultural entrepreneurship, and (3) agricultural sector employment. The quantitative survey was complemented by qualitative research to glean further insights into the facilitators and constraints of empowerment among various actors in the agricultural value chain. The data and analysis generated from this WEAI for Value Chain (WEAI4VC) study may inform USAID’s selection and design of interventions that may, in turn, maximize its programmatic impact on women and men’s empowerment as producers, entrepreneurs, and wage employees.