Shafaq News- Nineveh
Northern Iraq’s Nineveh has launched its harvestseason across 600,000 dunams (60,000 hectares) under the province’s irrigatedagricultural plan, Agriculture Director Abdullah Al-Obaidi announced onTuesday.
Speaking to Shafaq News, Al-Obaidi said preparationsinclude deploying harvesting machines and allocating fuel quotas ranging from3,000 to 5,000 liters per harvester to ensure smooth operations. The plancovers only irrigated areas, despite millions of additional dunams cultivatedoutside it, a gap he warned could complicate harvesting and marketing,particularly amid expectations of strong output driven by favorable rainfall.
The directorate has submitted requests to includethese areas in the government’s crop marketing system. Al-Obaidi urgedNineveh’s lawmakers to intervene and expand the plan, citing ongoingchallenges, including delayed payments from the previous season.
The development comes as dozens of farmers fromcentral and southern provinces gathered on Sunday in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square todemand overdue payments and compensation, with security forces dispersing theprotest using water cannons while the demonstrators approached the Green Zone,the fortified district housing government institutions and foreign missions. The General Federation of Iraqi Farmers backed the demands and called for aformal government apology.
Caretaker Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudanidirected authorities to receive all submitted requests and ordered aninvestigation into the conduct of security forces, reaffirming support for theagricultural sector. Parliament Speaker Haibet Al-Halbousi also instructed theparliamentary Security and Defense Committee to summon the commandersresponsible for handling the incident.
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