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Agriculture serves as the foundation on which many countries build
their economies. For Iraq, agriculture has traditionally been the second
largest employer, after the oil sector. Agriculture is the second
largest component of Iraq's Gross Domestic Product and an important part
of the social structure of rural communities. The U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) is helping Iraq revitalize its agricultural sector
through a variety of activities.
USDA maintains a permanent presence in the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad
through the assignment of two Foreign Service Officers. In addition, one
USDA staff member serves as the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT)
liaison in Baghdad.
Ministry Advisors.
Six USDA staff serve as ministry
advisors to the government of Iraq. One is an agricultural economics
advisor and three provide technical guidance and capacity building to the
Ministry of Agriculture and other relevant Ministries in the areas of
agricultural extension, animal health and food safety, strategic
planning, and soil and water management.
PRT Advisors. In 2009, USDA will fill 32 PRT agricultural
advisors positions in Iraq. As of July 2009, 28 advisors are in-country
with the remaining positions to be filled in the next few months. All of
the people deployed to Iraq have been USDA employees who have
volunteered and were selected and trained for these assignments.
PRT-led projects vary depending on the needs of the province and have
established farmer organizations, started agricultural extension
projects, managed natural resources, rebuilt institutional capacity to
clean and maintain irrigation canals, recreated veterinary
infrastructure, ensured animal health, and developed food and animal
production and marketing systems.
In 2009, USDA provided $10 million to help support the costs of
participating in these activities in both Afghanistan and Iraq.
Technical Assistance.
USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service
(FAS), in collaboration with USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Service and Colorado State University, provides technical assistance to
strengthen Iraq's national animal health and disease control program. In
2007, FAS sponsored a 1-week planning session with 16 Iraqi government
and private sector representatives to develop a national animal health
program in line with international standards. The planning session was
held in conjunction with the ninth conference of the World Organization
for Animal Health Regional Commission for the Middle East in Damascus,
Syria. FAS' technical assistance efforts facilitated the reintegration
of Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture officials into this international
standards-setting body and assisted in reestablishing key regional
networks with technical counterparts in the Middle East region.
In 2008, 94 Iraqis participated in an animal health disease control
workshop hosted by the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture. The workshop
resulted in the following:
·
Outlines of five disease plans for the Iraqi
National Animal Health Program. The plans include goals,
monitoring approaches, administrative structures, and
responsibilities;
·
Iraq's Ministry of Agriculture and the Kurdistan
region signed a memorandum of understanding to establish full
collaboration on animal health activities across Iraq;
·
Seven veterinary colleges in Iraq signed a
collaborative agreement to standardize the veterinary curriculum
and to establish lines of research collaboration;
·
Linkages with the Swiss Tropical Medicine Institute
with the potential to establish collaborative research in the
animal health arena;
·
Linkages with Turkey's Ministry of Higher Education
to train Iraqi faculty members in veterinary medicine; and
·
An outline of enhancing the buffalo-raising units in
Iraq was developed in conjunction with the Iraqi Prime
Minister's Office and the Ministry of Agriculture.
In 2007, FAS awarded a 2-year cooperative agreement to the U.S.
Grains Council to assist the Iraqi Poultry Producers Association (IPPA)
in creating a Center for Poultry Excellence in Iraq. This center will be
a one-stop shop for the latest information on the Iraqi poultry
industry. The FAS grant will support the following activities to
establish the center: increasing staff within the IPPA; increasing the
IPPA's capacity to provide valuable market information; and conducting
18 training seminars to share the latest technical information.
U.S.-Based Training.
The Cochran Fellowship Program (CFP)
provides short-term training in the United States to help countries
develop market-driven food systems and increase trade links with U.S.
agribusinesses. In 2007, the CFP provided training to three Iraqi
veterinarians in animal health and animal disease control techniques. In
2008, 12 Iraqi government statisticians participated in an agricultural
statistics training program and 6 Iraqi extension agents participated in
an agricultural extension program. Thus far in 2009, eight Iraqi
government officials have participated in an agricultural policy
planning and budget management training designed in conjunction with the
University of California at Davis.
The Norman E. Borlaug International Agricultural Science and
Technology Fellows (Borlaug) Program provides 6- to 8- week
collaborative research training for entry-level scientists and
policymakers from developing and middle-income countries. In 2008, the
Borlaug Program trained four Iraqi scientists at U.S. land-grant
universities and at USDA research laboratories in water resources,
waste-water recycling, and irrigation. In 2009, USDA plans to train
about 12 more Borlaug fellows in planting seeds, geographic information
systems, remote sensing, rainfed agriculture, and water management.
Revitalization.
USDA
cooperation with Iraq will help the Iraqi agricultural sector spur
domestic economic growth. In addition, USDA efforts will ultimately lead
toward increasing U.S. market share of Iraqi’s agricultural imports.
The U.S. Department of State provided FAS with $12.2 million to
undertake the implementation of phases one and two of the Iraq
Agricultural Extension Revitalization (IAER) project in collaboration
with USDA’s Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension
Service, which is responsible for monitoring the execution of the IAER
project by a consortium of U.S. land-grant universities. This project
aims to support Iraq to restore, expand, and sustain a private-sector
driven Iraqi agricultural sector.
The IAER seeks to revitalize the Iraqi extension system by building
the institutional capacity of the Ministry of Agriculture and Iraq's
major agricultural universities. Iraqis can then establish up-to-date
extension research and training facilities and provide efficient
agricultural extension services that will promote sustainable economic
development for Iraqi farmers and rural communities.
From 2007 through 2008, IAER conducted 25 extension seminars
including field demonstrations to 770 extension personnel of the
Ministry of Agriculture and Iraqi university faculty. The IAER project
has five principal focal points: livestock production, field crop
production and marketing, horticultural crop production, extension
methodology, and irrigation and water resources management.
General information about FAS programs, resources, and services is
available on the Internet at the FAS home page:
http://www.fas.usda.gov.
