Wassit peasants to get loans

WASSIT / IraqiNews.com: The Wassit agricultural department endorsed 2600 petitions for loans to farmers, the department chief said, adding more than 9 billion Iraqi dinars (ID) worth of loans were already disbursed. “The committees in charge of disbursing loans in the department approved 2600 loan applications for projects of livestock, sheep, poultry and factories serving the agricultural sector,” Sallam Iskandar told IraqiNews.com. “The approved petitions were referred to the accredited banks to cash these funds with zero interest,” he said. He added that among the applicants to be loaned are the Iraqi-Jordanian al-Dujaila company, whose fields are located in the province, at ID18.5 billion, a peasant at ID6.5 billion to build 500 plastic houses and a poultry raiser at ID1.5 billion to operate an egg-hatching project. “These loans should refresh the agricultural sector and end its hiatus during the past years,” Iskandar said. A Shiite province, Wassit, 180 km south of Baghdad , is in the east of the country. Its name comes from the Arabic word meaning “middle,” as it lies along the Tigris about midway between Baghdad and Basra . Its major cities include the capital, al-Kut, and al-Hayy. Prior to 1976 it was known as Kut Province . AmR (S) 1