Iraq's Agriculture: Background and Status
Released: 2003-05-13T00:00:00

Summary:
Iraq's agricultural sector represents a small, but vital component of Iraq's economy.Over the past several decades agriculture's role in the economy has been heavily influenced by Iraq'sinvolvement in military conflicts, particularly the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War and the 1991 Gulf War, and by varyingdegrees of government efforts to promote and/or control agricultural production. In the mid-1980s, agricultureaccounted for only about 14% of the national GDP. After the imposition of U.N. sanctions and the Iraqigovernment's non-compliance with a proposed U.N. Oil-for-Food program in 1991, agriculture's share of GDP isestimatedto have risen to 35% by 1992. (1)
Rapid population growth during the past three decades, coupled with limited arable land and a generalstagnation in agricultural productivity, has steadily increased dependence on imports to meet domestic food needssince themid-1960s. By 1980 Iraq was importing about half of its food supply. By 2002, between 80% and 100% of manybasic staples -- wheat, rice, sugar, vegetable oil, and protein meals -- were imported.
This report will be updated if events warrant.

paragraphs: RS21516 -- Iraq's Agriculture: Background and Status
May 13, 2003
subsections: section_title: Footnotes
paragraphs: 1. (back) Ahmad, Mahmood. "Agricultural PolicyIssues and Challenges in Iraq" Short- and Medium-term Options," from Iraq's Economic Predicament ,Kamil Mahdi, Editor. Exeter Arab and Islamic Studies Series, Ithaca Press,copyright©Kamil Mahdi, 2002, pp. 179-180.
2. (back) FAOSTAT, Food and AgriculturalOrganization, United Nations, http://apps.fao.org/ 
Note: A hectare equals about 2.47 acres.
3. (back) PECAD, FAS, USDA. "Iraq CropProduction." January 16, 2003. http://www.fas.usda.gov/pecad/highlights/2003/01/iraq_update/index.htm 
4. (back) FAOSTAT, FAO, U.N.
5. (back) In the early 1990s, cultivated areatemporarily expanded to nearly 5.5 million hectares before returning to under 4 million. 
6. (back) The Iraq government reported an expansionof irrigated area to 3.525 million hectares in 1990, but this appears unlikely and is inconsistent with anecdotalreports. This reported new irrigated area could be a "euphemistic"reclassification of the government program of draining the southeast marshlands.
7. (back) Springborg, Robert. "Infitah, AgrarianTransformation, and Elite Consolidation in Contemporary Iraq," The Middle East Journal , Vol. 40, No.1, Winter 1986, pp. 33-52.
8. (back) Ibid., p. 37.
9. (back) Springborg (1986), p. 40-41.
10. (back) FAOSTAT, FAO, U.N.
11. (back) Ibid.
12. (back) U.S. General Accounting Office. Iraq's Participation in U.S. Agricultural Export Programs , NSIAD-91-76, November 1990, http://161.203.16.4/d22t8/142766.pdf 
Note: under GSM-102 USDA's Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) guarantees repayment for credit salesof 3 years or less; under GSM-103, CCC guarantees repayment for credit sales of more than 3 years but less than10 years.
13. (back) Ibid, p. 22-23.
14. (back) United Nations, Office of the IraqProgram -- Oil for Food; "About the Program: In Brief." http://www.un.org/depts/oip/background/inbrief.html
15. (back) Country Factsheet, The EconomistIntelligence Unit,
http://www.economist.com/countries/Iraq .
16. (back) The Economist , "Diggingfor defeat: Iraq," May 2, 1998, Vol. 348, No. 8066, p.44.
17. (back) U.S. Bureau of the Census,International Data Base (IDB), Iraq, Oct. 10, 2002;
http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idbacc.html 
18. (back) FAOSTAT, FAO, U.N.
19. (back) UNDP, Iraq Country Office,1999-2000 Report, June 2000.
20. (back) USDA, PSD database, April 2003. Note: during 1960-69 annual cereal production per capita averaged 249 kilograms, this fell to 177 in the 1970s, and130 in the 1980s, but had regained ground to 155 kilograms during the1990-94 period.