Iraq's farm sector crumbling as drought bites

By Ahmed Rasheed and Missy Ryan

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A severe drought will force Iraq to import 40 percent more wheat in 2008/09, the agriculture minister said, even as the country struggles to revive a sector crippled by decades of neglect and decay.

"In 2007, average rainfall was just 40 percent of the normal level in Iraq, falling more than half and severely affecting crop production," Agriculture Minister Ali al-Bahadli told Reuters in an interview.

Ministry figures provided to Reuters on Thursday showed that Iraq expects to import 2.8 million tonnes of wheat in 2008/09, up 40 percent from the previous year. Wheat production is expected to drop 27 percent to 1.6 million tonnes.

Bahadli said local wheat output was "still below where we would like it to be" as Iraq feels the effects of a drought in the Middle East and Central Asia, which the U.S. Agriculture Department (USDA) says is one of the worst in recent history.

The USDA expects the region's wheat output to fall by at least 22 percent in 2008/09, and sees Iraq's wheat production dropping to 1.3 million tonnes.

The predictions are more bad news for Iraqi farmers, struggling to cope with a chronic scarcity of water, electricity and fuel while they seek to shake the effects of decades of isolation under former leader Saddam Hussein and five years of war.

In the 1950s through 1970s, Iraq exported dates, wheat and barley. But its irrigation systems have since fallen into disrepair, certain crops and varieties were dictated by government planners and production declined.

Today agriculture in Iraq, once known as the 'fertile crescent,' is the second-largest sector of the economy after oil and the single largest employer. Yet it accounts for just 8 percent of GDP, a distant second to Iraq's giant oil sector.