FAO Agriculture Programme Development in Iraq – 18.03.2010
The United Nations Development Group Trust Fund will close in 2010 and FAO has been working in close consultation with the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) to develop its agriculture programme in Iraq. FAO is seeking external support and bilateral funding to support FAO’s agriculture programme. In collaboration with the MoA, FAO developed a three-year Medium Term Strategy for FAO Assistance to Iraq. In March 2009, FAO and the Ministry of State for the Marshlands endorsed a joint programming strategy specifically for rehabilitation of the marshlands region of Iraq which agrees to join efforts in assisting the Iraqi marshlands people and support the agriculture production and post production activities in the area with particular attention to fisheries, horticulture, livestock, agro-industries, GIS Applications and food safety. FAO is the leading Agency of the Agriculture and Food Security Sector Outcome Team. In January 2009, FAO began implementation of the Private Sector Development Programme in Iraq, which aims to create and enable an effective, coherent, and comprehensive framework for private sector development. FAO is carrying out the preparatory phase of the public sector modernization programme with a rapid assessment of the current systems in place. The severity of the drought in 2009 has plagued Iraq’s crop production capacity. Iraq is located in the dry zone of western Asia and depends mostly on irrigated agriculture, except for the northern part of the country with rain-fed crops. Iraq is suffering a severe shortage of water due to climate change, dryer winters and reduced flow in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers due to the construction of dams in neighbouring countries, which will lead to 33 million cubic meter water shortage by 2015 according to statistics from the Iraqi Ministry of Water Resources. FAO has prepared a drought mitigation project proposal valued at US$ 500 000 for funding through United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Emergency Relief Fund
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