With sorrow, the farmer Salah stands in front of the fire that devoured his farm in Al-Hamdaniya district, "in the northern province of Nineveh," after he lost nearly 250 dunums of wheat. (A dunum is equivalent to 2500 square meters).
After waiting for the harvest for a whole year to reap the benefits of his labor, he is now bemoaned by a season that he hoped would improve his financial condition.
In his speech to Al-Jazeera Net, Salah demands that the authorities work to hold the perpetrators accountable, especially that the fires have become repeated every year, pointing out that the state did not compensate them for the losses of last year.
And the strategic agricultural crops in Iraq (wheat and barley) face a wave of major fires every year, which inflict thousands of dunams and cause heavy losses.
Fighting sufficiency
It was surprising that the fires this year occurred after the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture announced the achievement of self-sufficiency in wheat and barley, and even its intention to export the surplus for the first time in decades.
A number of Iraqi MPs have explicitly accused external parties of causing fires in order to keep Iraq dependent on imports for its food needs.
The spokesman for the Ministry of Agriculture, Hamid Al-Nayef, says that the agricultural plan for the current year for wheat and barley crops is 16 million dunums, up 4 million dunums from last year, and with a production rate of 5.5 to 6 million tons.
And about the fires that broke out in large areas of agricultural land, Al-Nayef adds that the harvest season for the crops began in mid-April last and ends in the beginning of next July, pointing out that this period always witnesses fires for various reasons.
A land scorched
reveals Naev that last year saw the burning of nearly 54 thousand acres (50-70 thousand tons) of wheat at least, while the total burnt areas arrived in the season to seven thousand acres so far within the areas covered by the plan of agricultural only, stressing that There are other areas not counted, as well as the harvest season is still in the middle.
And on the ones who caused the fires, Al-Nayef comments in an interview with Al-Jazeera Net that the parties he described as terrorist are behind these fires, in addition to the hands that he described as "malicious" aiming to prevent Iraq from achieving self-sufficiency, pointing out that Iraq over the past years was a tempting market and back garden For the products of neighboring countries, and therefore some of these countries do not like Iraq to be self-sufficient.
Al-Nayef concludes that the development of agriculture in Iraq requires the state's control of the border outlets and customs and the prevention of the introduction of agricultural products that are similar to them locally, indicating that there are dozens of outlets that enter daily products competing with the local product.
Accusations of sabotage
With the start of this year's harvest season, the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture expected that Iraq would export approximately 850,000 tons of wheat for the first time in decades, in addition to similar quantities of barley.
The head of the Federation of Agricultural Associations in Iraq, Haider Al-Asad, had confirmed in an earlier interview that the fires - for the second year in a row - affected only wheat and barley crops without any other crops, indicating the possibility of a plan to restore Iraq’s reliance on importing these crops.
The agricultural authorities in the country estimate the size of the losses due to the fires at about six billion dinars (five million dollars) in just one month, in addition to the burning of dozens of agricultural vehicles and combine harvesters.
For his part, the head of the Agriculture, Water and Marshes Committee in Parliament, Salam Al-Shammari, accuses external and internal parties of burning wheat and barley crops in every season in order to force Iraq to import.
Al-Shammari asserts that some of the neighboring countries are concerned about Iraq's failure to achieve self-sufficiency in the agricultural field, in order for Iraq to remain an importer of its goods, relying only on oil.
Al-Shammari, speaking to Al-Jazeera Net, confirmed that his committee will work to host the authorities concerned with the file in order to open a parliamentary investigation, adding that there are attempts by corrupt parties to smuggle wheat from neighboring countries and hand it over to the Ministry of Trade as an Iraqi.
The shoulders of the economy
for his part, revealed economic spokesman Jamil Antoine of the island expert that fires weigh heavily on the Iraqi economy, stressing that it despite its size , it will not significantly affect production this year after increasing the area of agricultural land.
And on the one who caused the fires, Antoine pointed out that some farmers intentionally burn their crops in order to obtain compensation from the state, as well as suggesting the presence of vandal elements deliberately burning crops in order to harm the economy, impede the political process and exclude foreign investments, because of these negative impacts on the country.
Antoine noted that Iraq is currently cultivating approximately 15 million dunums of various crops, despite the fact that the arable area is approximately 45 million dunums, in addition to that agriculture constituted 25% of the gross domestic product in the past decades, according to him.
Journalist Riyad al-Hamdani, for his part, pointed out that the strategic crop fires last year were caused by armed factions backed by Iran, especially in the governorates of Nineveh, Salahuddin, Diyala and Anbar.
As for the fires this year, according to al-Hamdani, most of them occurred in the areas of southern Nineveh, Salah al-Din and Diyala, and they were carried out by the Islamic State, pointing out that the organization adopted this in issuing a broadcast to it recently.
Observers warn that Iraq has become a target in its agricultural wealth, especially since all fires and poisoning of tomato crops and fish fields were made after every announcement by the Ministry of Agriculture of achieving self-sufficiency.