Shafaq News- Baghdad
Iraq’s cabinet on Tuesday approvedthe payment of farmers’ dues for the 2024–2025 and 2025–2026 agriculturalseasons after protests over delayed payments escalated in Baghdad.
The cabinet decided to delay thecollection of land lease and irrigation fees until farmers’ wheat dues aresettled, and directed the Finance Ministry to include loan amounts and accruedinterest in the upcoming federal budget bill and provide guarantees forrepayment to the Trade Bank of Iraq.
Wheat pricing and procurement termsfor the 2025–2026 season were also revised, with the cabinet setting prices at700,000 Iraqi dinars (about $467) per ton for crops within the agriculturalplan and 500,000 dinars (about $333) for those outside it, alongside yieldestimates of 900 kg per dunam for modern irrigation systems, 750 kg forirrigated land, and 300 kg for rain-fed areas, while allocating 400,000 tons tothe Kurdistan Region, including 292,000 tons within the plan.
Hundreds of farmers from central andsouthern provinces gathered in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square on May 3 and attemptedto march toward the Green Zone, demanding their financial entitlements andrevisions to wheat pricing. Security forces used water cannons and electricstun devices to disperse them and block their advance across Al-JumhuriyaBridge, leaving at least 17 injured.
Following the clashes, caretakerPrime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani ordered authorities to receive farmers’demands and launched an investigation into the conduct of security forces.
