Iraq is seeking foreign investment in agriculture to help the country become self-sufficient in grains within three years.
“We are offering incentives for farmers to speed up the process and we welcome foreign investors,” Agriculture Minister Ezzeddin al-Dawla told reporters in Baghdad today.
Surging food costs and rising unemployment have helped spur protests across northern Africa and the Middle East, toppling leaders in Tunisia and Egypt. Iraq wants to curb dependence on oil revenue, while agriculture has the potential to employ half the country’s jobless, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said at the conference. Iraq has the world’s fifth-biggest oil reserves.
Iraq supplies about half of its grain needs currently, the prime minister said. “Within a limited period and at a small cost, Iraq’s agriculture has made significant progress,” he said, adding that the government will offer loans for projects.
The country will import 4.91 million metric tons of grain in the year through June, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization said Feb. 4. Iraq’s national grain production will total 4 million tons, the FAO said.
The Grain Board of Iraq signed 12 contracts in February to buy 850,000 tons of wheat from the U.S. and Australia, Director General Muthana Jabbar said March 9. Iraq tendered for another 100,000 tons of any origin with a bidding deadline of March 26, according to a document posted on the board’s website today.
Iraq plans to build up stockpiles of wheat in the next six months, while wheat produced locally will come to market at the end of April, Jabbar said, without estimating output figures.