Iraq Rice Yields Slump; Rice Imports Surge

February 5, 2010
Ali Shatab / Assaman.com

Iraq harvested less rice this year than any other year before. Iraq currently imports about 10 times as much rice as it produces – that is about 1 million tons a year.

http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\2010-01-29\kurd.htm

Iraq Rice Yields Slump; Rice Imports Surge
Ali Shatab / Assaman.com

(January 29, 2010) — Iraq harvested less rice this year than any other year before.

The slump agricultural officials blame on falling water levels from the Euphrates River which has for decades supplied the rice fields in southern Iraq.

The Twin Rivers, the Euphrates and Tigris, are now a trickle of what they used to be, turning the land between them from a vast breadbasket into desert.

A statement by the ministry of agriculture said only 102,000 tons have been shipped to state silos so far and the deadline for deliveries expires by the end of January.

Last year, Iraqi farmers ferried more than 120,000 tons of rice to government silos.

Iraq currently imports about 10 times as much rice as it produces – that is about 1 million tons a year.

Official statistics reveal that the contribution of agriculture to national GDP has fallen to a meager three percent. Food imports now cost the country billions of dollars. Iraq had to pay more than $600 million only for rice three years ago.

Agricultural production is expected to meet less than one fourth of the country’s needs this year.

Wheat imports are estimated to hit 4 million tons this year.

Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.