Agriculture: Zero customs duties on imports of irrigation systems

The Ministry of Agriculture revealed that it had taken a series of measures with the aim of supporting the farmer and increasing production yields, indicating that the measures included zeroing customs duties on farmers’ imports from modern irrigation systems, distributing seeds with support of up to 70% of the upper ranks, in addition to allowing the private sector to import fertilizers through agricultural associations. And agricultural offices, including urea and DAP.

Earlier, the official spokesman for the government, Bassem Al-Awadi, confirmed that “Iraq is working hard to expand irrigation technologies that reduce the use of water within agricultural fields and address water scarcity in the country, and through which it is possible to expand the agricultural area in all governorates as a result of the lack of water revenues from countries.” "Source".
Drought represents the greatest obstacle to the agricultural sector, which loses 400,000 dunams annually as a result, according to the United Nations, which has prompted various government agencies to develop broad plans and programs to confront this matter, especially providing modern sprinklers that use less water and are able to increase land yields.
The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Mahdi Al-Jubouri, explained that “the methods and mechanisms of agricultural support provided to peasants and farmers vary within the agricultural strategies and plans approved annually by the Ministry, and among these mechanisms is the support provided to agricultural research and the dissemination of that research through workshops and research stations spread throughout the country’s governorates and communication with Extension centres,” indicating that “agricultural research has recently focused on disseminating higher-grade seed varieties for several agricultural crops that are compatible with climate change and tolerate water shortages and high salinity, and that these agricultural experiments that are held by the Research Department and specialists in all other departments are considered advanced support.” For the agricultural sector with the aim of obtaining seeds suitable for climate changes and environmental conditions in Iraq.”
 Al-Jubouri added, “The Ministry is keen to provide farmers with financial support, represented by a 70% reduction in the value of seeds from higher grades, in addition to moving towards distributing pesticides free of charge to all farmers, as the Ministry has worked to contract with the best international origins, and that these seeds are distributed through reviewing Al-Falah, protection departments for crops.
The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Agriculture stated that another step aimed at supporting the efforts of farmers was allowing the private sector to import fertilizers through agricultural associations and agricultural offices. This is a great opportunity for the private sector in the field of importing fertilizers, and thus we noticed during this year stability in fertilizer prices compared to previous years, which were Their prices are very high, and he continued, “The presence of fertilizers in this quantity, which is equivalent to the cultivated areas, despite the expansion of agricultural plans and in areas permanently guaranteed or almost guaranteed by rain, in addition to the area of ​​4 million dunums that enjoy modern irrigation systems, will contribute to increasing the yields of various crops.”
Al-Jubouri also praised the Cabinet’s decision to allow the import of modern irrigation systems without customs duties, pointing out that there is other support for farmers through the Modern Technologies Project, which provides advanced irrigation systems of fixed and pivot sprinklers with a support rate of up to 30 percent for a period of ten years, which is the period for recovering the remaining amount. On the farmer and farmer, these modern systems work to confront the decline in water revenues and the lack of rainfall and lead to an increase in agricultural productivity and the yield of a dunum.