Thi-Qar prepares to cultivate 650,000 donums with wheat, barely

Thi-Qar THI-QAR / IraqiNews.com: The Thi-Qar agriculture department has finalized its preparations to cultivate 652,420 domuns with wheat and barely for the winter season, an official said. “More than 261,523 donums will be planted with wheat, while 390,900 donums will be cultivated with barely,” Chief engineers of the agriculture department in Thi-Qar, Uqeil Hassan Salman, told IraqiNews.com. “The department offer high-quality seeds and good agriculture equipments,” he added. Thi-Qar, 380 km south of Baghdad, has an area of 12,900 square kilometers (4,980.7 sq mi). In 2003 the estimated population of the governorate was 1,454,200 people. Thi-Qar was the second Iraqi province where security responsibilities were transferred from the Multi-National Force (MNF) to the Iraqis. The province’s capital is the city of al-Nassiriya. It also includes the ancient Sumerian ruins of Ur, Eridu, Lagash and Ngirsu. Before 1976 the province was known as al-Muntafiq. SH (P)/SR 1