Al-Monitor: Tobacco cultivation is another important source of the economy in the Kurdistan region

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[size=52]Al-Monitor: Tobacco cultivation is another important source of the economy in the Kurdistan region[/size]

[size=45]Translated by / Hamed Ahmed[/size]
[size=45]In a high area in one of the mountain valleys of the Kurdistan region, there extends a large field of tobacco leaf crops, which is now approaching its harvest date. As the heat of the summer sun begins to decrease and the fall season approaches, the pale green tobacco leaves begin to turn yellow, ready after being dried and screened for marketing or selling to cigarette manufacturing factories.[/size]
[size=45]After a few days, the owner of the field, Sattar Ahmed Suleiman, 40 years old, along with his family members and neighbors, are preparing to harvest the tobacco leaves and spread them on a small area of ​​ground on top of wooden boards to be dried under the sun.[/size]
[size=45]The report prepared by the Al-Monitor news website indicates that the tobacco crop previously constituted an important part of the region’s economic resources, as it supplied government cigarette factories in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah, as well as the local market, to manufacture local cigarettes that were popular in the market, but now tobacco cultivation There is some decline in the region. The report adds that only a few farmers now continue to grow the tobacco crop on small farms designated for it in the valleys of mountainous areas around the Soran and Rania region, noting that the huge Sulaymaniyah cigarette factory had completed packaging its last cigarette pack in the year 2005, and was transformed after its closure. An exhibition of artistic works and a space for cultural events.[/size]
[size=45]The owner of the tobacco farm, Suleiman, who lives in the village of Khankeh, 80 km northeast of Erbil, says, “We continue to grow tobacco because we know how to grow it and how to harvest and prepare it.”[/size]
[size=45]Last year, he sold part of what he harvested for ten thousand dinars per kilogram, and he received a lower price in the wholesale market. He says that he now has packages of preserved tobacco waiting to be sold at a reasonable price this year.[/size]
[size=45]Salman adds, “Large fields were used to grow tobacco, but now only small areas are used for that.”[/size]
[size=45]Nouri Ahmed, 63 years old, owner of a shop in Sulaymaniyah Bazaar, remembers how tobacco farms were spread throughout all regions of Kurdistan, and that in the 1980s he used to grow tobacco crops in fields located on the outskirts of the city of Sulaymaniyah, which has now turned into a residential building complex.[/size]
[size=45]The Kurdistan Regional Government hopes to revitalize its agricultural sector as a means of diversifying the sources of its oil-dependent economy. The Prime Minister of Kurdistan, Masrour Barzani, launched an initiative in 2022 to diversify the region's economic sources and reduce dependence on oil by supporting local farmers, noting that the region hopes to become the food basket for Iraq and the region in general. Barzani said in a statement published on December 6, 2022 on the official website, “We want to help and support our farmers from the beginning so that they can develop the agricultural sector further and turn their agricultural products into a source of income not only for themselves but for the government and the region.” Farhan Abdul Qader will help his neighbor Suleiman harvest his crop of tobacco leaves in a few days. Abdul Qader says that during his life he saw a diversity of crops grown in the village of Khanka, including tobacco, yellow corn, and sesame seeds, noting that the farms in the village used to grow various types of tobacco, some of which were expensive and some of which were less expensive and popular in the market. Abdul Qader adds, “But we face competition from cheap imported agricultural products coming from Iran and Turkey, and this is what causes our local product to face problems in marketing it, and in many cases the farmer is forced to display his product on the side of the road to sell it to passers-by at a reasonable price.”[/size]
[size=45]The Iraqi market was opened to the outside world after the American invasion of the country in 2003, and the markets were flooded with many types of agricultural and industrial products coming from neighboring countries, especially cigarettes and various types of tobacco, which began to compete with the local product.[/size]
[size=45]It is noteworthy that the tobacco growing season on the farms of the Kurdistan region begins at the beginning of the month of March, and the tobacco plant is watered periodically until the end of the summer and the beginning of fall, when it is time to harvest, cut and collect the leaves, then expose them to the sun’s rays until they dry, so that they are ready to be sold in the markets.[/size]
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