Feisty Aphrodite Archives
Occupation Strangles Farmers
The following is from the article written by Ahmed Ali and Dahr Jamail, published by Inter Press Service News Agency:
Prior to the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003, farmers in Baquba, the capital city of Diyala province 40 km northeast of Baghdad, struggled with plant diseases they believed were caused by bombs dropped during the U.S.-led war against Iraq in 1991.
Trees were infested with white fruit fly, aphids and plant louse, and there was a shortage of water for irrigation. The directorate-general of agriculture used helicopters to spread insecticide.
After the invasion, the situation has worsened. Helicopter spraying seems unthinkable.
"With helicopters large distances can be sprayed in one stroke," Aboud Ibrahim, a 55-year-old local farmer told IPS. "In the case of white fruit fly, when a farmer sprays the insecticide, the disease can move back to his farm again from the neighbouring farm within six hours. This is why simultaneous treatment of all farms is so efficient."
Helicopters now mean something else. "Helicopters and fighters of the coalition forces attack farmers who work at night on their farms," said a local farmer who did not want to be named. "Due to the water quotas, farmers are forced to water their farms even at night. Some farmers have been shot in firing by coalition forces. Farmers would rather neglect their farms than risk death."
The ministry of agriculture pays no attention to the array of problems.
"The spread of plant diseases has caused a shortage of crops, and this has a direct effect not only on the farmers but also on the Iraqi people in general," a supervisor at the directorate-general of agriculture in Diyala province told IPS on condition of anonymity.
"Iraq now imports almost all its crops from neighbouring counties like Syria, Iran, Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon, after decades of exporting to these same countries."
By now, the supervisor said, 90 percent of local farmers in Diyala have left their farms and orchards because "the farms have been severely attacked by diseases and the shortage of water." Also, he said, the prices of imported vegetables and fruit have increased tremendously.
"We produce potato, tomato, cucumber, onion, celery, lettuce, and eggplant, in addition to all kinds of fruit, but now our product covers only 30 percent of the people's needs, so they are forced to buy imported goods which are much more expensive," a local agronomist, also speaking on condition of anonymity, told IPS. "Farmers were living very comfortably before the invasion because they were doing their job freely." Read the entire story here.
