From Producers to Consumers: The Challenges and Opportunities of Agricultural Development in Iraqi Kurdistan

Lina Eklund, Abdulhakim Abdi and Mine Islar
Additional contact information
Lina Eklund: Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES), Lund University, Lund 223 62, Sweden
Abdulhakim Abdi: Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, Lund University, Lund 223 62, Sweden
Mine Islar: Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS), Lund University, Lund 223 62, Sweden

Land, 2017, vol. 6, issue 2, 1-14

Abstract: Agriculture and rural life in the Middle East have gone through several changes in the past few decades. The region is characterized by high population growth, urbanization, and water scarcity, which poses a challenge to maintaining food security and production. This paper investigates agricultural and rural challenges in the Duhok governorate of Iraqi Kurdistan from biophysical, political, and socio-economic perspectives. Satellite data is used to study land use and productivity, while a review of government policies and interview data show the perspectives of the government and the local population. Our results reveal that these perspectives are not necessarily in line with each other, nor do they correspond well with the biophysical possibilities. While the government has been trying to increase agricultural productivity, satellite data show that yields have been declining since 2000. Furthermore, a lack of services in rural areas is driving people to cities to seek better opportunities, which means that the local population’s incentive to increase agricultural activity is low. Governmental plans suggest land extensification to increase production and self-sufficiency, but the land use classification shows little available land. Instead, we recommend supporting small-scale traditional agriculture development as a more sustainable and feasible alternative. Additionally, more resources need to be focused on improving rural infrastructure and services to increase access to education and health care as a means of gaining support from the local population.

Keywords: food production; land productivity; Kurdistan Region of Iraq; land use; land productivity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/6/2/44/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/6/2/44/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:6:y:2017:i:2:p:44-:d:102215

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().