Iraq Needs to Select Right Path to Development
Iraq, one of the oldest civilizations, is one of those rare nations blessed with both oil reserves and fertile land. Today, strife scarred and under poor governance local demand in food products is mostly met through import from Syria, Egypt, Turkey and Iran. To regain its past glory, Iraq has an enormous opportunity to start alternative livelihood development by way of developing farming skills, knowledge and access to business services to boost large scale employment. The challenge remains in retaining the security situation, delivering basic services to farmers and taking the right path to secure sustainable development.
Then & now: Iraq’s economy has been ravaged by 13 years of sanction, decades of poor governance and 5 years of sectarian violence. Iraq has abundant natural resources and had the technical skills to be one of the leading nations in the world. Iraq, one of the oldest civilizations, is one of those rare nations blessed with both oil reserves and fertile land. The two rivers, Tigress and Euphrates spread almost across the length and breadth of the country, making most of its land arable. Irrigation infrastructure provided farmers access to water, which is nonexistent now. Farming used to provide livelihood to many and the country used to export farm products to neighboring countries.
Today, it has turned out be to importers of food products and gets around 80% of its net requirement, ranging from milk products to vegetable. As a result, many have lost their livelihood and farmers have turned out to be taxi drivers, some fled the country because of the security situation. In this conflict economy, current challenge is to adopt right path for the economic development and inclusive growth. I would be writing next few blogs covering this topic.
Paradise lost: Immediately after invasion in 2003, physical facilities for agricultural research and seed production were deteriorated and genebank and seed production firms were looted. Farmers lost access to basic amenities and information. This coupled with exodus of professionals and nil investment has crippled Iraqi agriculture, which was already suffering from years of sanction. Farmers do not have any access to technical and business information.
Agricultural extension service, which used to provide large array of information to Iraqi farmers, is now defunct and need to be restored to motivate farmers to get into farming business.
Iraq had a strong agriculture base and used to employ over 3 million people in this sector. Agricultural production has dwindled and is three times lower than some of the neighboring countries, making it difficult for the agroprocessors to compete. Local demand is mostly met through import from Syria, Egypt, Turkey and Iran.
The challenge: Iraq has an enormous opportunity to jump start alternative livelihood development by way of developing farming skills, knowledge and access to business services to employ large number of Iraqis. Irrigation infrastructure existed earlier need to be fixed. Increasing security and freedom, support from the international community and rebirth of few functioning markets has all contributed to Micro and Small Enterprise Growth (MSMEs), in certain provinces, during the last year.
The challenge is to retaining the security situation, delivering basic services to farmers and taking the right path to development. 
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