Agro-production down due to scarce rain – minister

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraqi Agriculture Minister Ali Hussein al-Bahadli said on Monday that the current agricultural season is facing tough times maintaining production rates due to scarce rains, calling for securing the country’s water from the levels of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. “The current agricultural season bodes ill for production rates due to the 30 percent decrease in rainwater,” Bahadli said in a press conference he held at the ministry headquarters in Baghdad. “The low rainwater level in the 2007/2008 season negatively affected agriculture and animal wealth, which prompted the government to offer farmers seeds at subsidized prices,” he added. The minister noted that the cabinet decided to double the budget for the agriculture ministry from 300 billion Iraqi dinars last year to 600 billion Iraqi dinars in the 2009 budget. AmR (P)/SR 1