Ikram Abdel Aziz stresses agricultural sector's importance

The member of the Baghdad Economic Forum, Ikram Abdul Aziz, announced that the agricultural sector is able to raise its contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP), as Iraq has fertile land, water and human resources, noting that the available land is suitable enough for agriculture to meet the need of twice the population of Iraq.

"This sector is declining due to inappropriate agricultural policies, the inability of the local producer to compete with the importer, due to the random import policy, and the lack of protection of the local product," Abdul Aziz added.

She pointed to the need to work to create an environment conducive to this sector, and provide the requirements to promote production, primarily chemical fertilizers, which can be produced locally in the specialized fertilizer plant in the province of Basra in southern Iraq.

Abdul Aziz stressed that Iraq is capable of achieving agricultural and industrial integration, which provides large sums of money to the federal budget, allocated annually to import fertilizer from the markets. She also stressed the importance of starting production in light of the available resources, while working on the development of this sector, which is a permanent oil and achieve food security for Iraq.

The economist added that Iraq is in dire need to adopt a major reform program for this sector, prepared by the experts and competencies on the agricultural issue. She called for the need to develop future plans, to bring investment capital wishing to work in Iraq, especially as Iraq has large areas of investment can cover the need of Iraq, indicating that the optimal investment for part of the available space, covering the need of regional markets with the best types of crops.

Abdul Aziz said that the expansion of agricultural investments, limiting the cycle of desertification, which has been expanding for years, because of the decline in performance in the agricultural sector for reasons known to all. She stressed that the data for specialized institutions confirmed the high rates of desertification in Iraq, on a continuous basis because of the failure to address this problem, which has been exacerbated.

The administrative deputy of the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture Mehdi Jubouri, indicated the importance of agricultural investment and its role in achieving economic growth and development, especially in the current circumstances.

Jubouri called for attracting investors in the agricultural sector, stressing that agriculture is better for investors. He pointed out that it is possible to launch permits for agricultural investments in light of the investment map and investment opportunities available. He stressed that the real desire of the ministry to attract agricultural investments is to provide all facilities to the investor in order to make the successful establishment of agricultural projects in the country.