Iraq plans to grow crop absent from south for decades

The Ministry of Agriculture announced on Friday the inclusion of new crops within the upcoming winter plan details, which encompass barley and yellow corn alongside expanding the cultivation areas for soybeans. The ministry's spokesman, Qusay Al-Hattab, stated in a press briefing that the relevant authorities placed barley and yellow corn at the forefront of the winter plan based on proposals and directives from the Minister of Agriculture, noting that the areas covered by the plan have expanded to exceed the barrier of seven milliondonums. He added that the new arrangements also included incorporating rain-fed lands across several Iraqi governorates, with Nineveh and Kirkuk acquiring the largest share of these targeted areas. Regarding efforts to introduce new plant varieties to the local environment, Al-Hattab pointed out that the Agricultural Research Department has prepared research studies to revive the cultivation of soybeans, which has been absent from the lands of Basra Governorate for nearly six decades. He emphasized that technical teams have executed intensive programs for multiplying high-grade seeds, coinciding with the application of advanced agricultural techniques relying on the transition from traditional tillage to conservation agriculture, in addition to updating fertilization programs according to the latest scientific foundations. He indicated that these endeavors resulted in the success of the crop cultivation experiment at the Qurna Research Station in Basra, subsequently expanding to encompass five extensive locations distributed across the governorates of Basra, Wasit, Anbar, Diyala, and Kirkuk. Al-Hattab concluded by affirming that these measures fall within the ministry's strategy aimed at diversifying agricultural production and employing the results of scientific research to enhance the cultivation of varieties whose presence was previously limited or halted in various regions of the country.