Introduction

In the mid-1970s the Iraq Government also became interested in the results being obtained in Libya. An official delegation went from South Australia to Iraq in 1979 and Iraqi Ministry officials were invited to Libya to look at the El Marj and Gefara Plains projects. They continued their journey to Australia to discuss technical cooperation and the possibility of similar dryland farming projects being carried out in Northern Iraq.

Dryland farming in Iraq

The cereal zone of northern Iraq is similar to much of the cereal zone of Jordan, but instead of turning to dust when it is exhausted, the soil settles down into a sulky clay that caps after rain and prevents seed from emerging. This extremely poor soil structure is the result of years of overcropping and erosion and a yield of 600 kg/ha of cereal is regarded as good. Pasture is scarce and sheep depend on tibben (a mixture of chaff and grain) and concentrates for most of their nourishment (PADP, 1982, p. 21). During an inspection in 1979 the cereal farms appeared in much worse condition than similar farms in the Jebel el Akhdar and the Gefara Plains in Libya.

The farming system

The farming system used for cereal production is primitive in spite of widespread mechanisation – deep ploughing, more working of the soil to prepare a rough seed bed, fertiliser and seed broadcast on the surface, and a rotation of wheat after wheat with occasionally a bare fallow (APDP, 1982, p. 44).