Local Collectives Work Together for Common Goals in Iraq

Iraq's harsh climate can make it difficult to produce healthy, frequent and consistent crops.

Story and all photos courtesy: Joanna Fox

(TIKRIT, Iraq.) - The Ninewah Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) has been working to join hundreds of northern Iraqi farmers together, regardless of ethnicity, tribe or religious background, to create 3 farmer's associations.

"We have found some true leaders of various communities willing to cross community, ethnic and sectarian bounds and work together across the entire community to get these groups involved," said Michael Hankey, Dept. of State officer in charge of the economic section of the Ninewah PRT.

"There is a commitment and eagerness of each organization to find ways to work together to find community wide solutions."

The PRT donated nine 80-horsepower, four-wheel drive, Iraqi-built tractors to the 3 farming associations in the hopes that more local investors will be encouraged by the PRT's investment and invest their own money into the economy.

Local Iraqi businessman George Kako more than matched the PRT's investment. Kako is one of 7 board members on one of the associations called the Brotherhood Union for Agricultural Development and Environmental Protection.

"People have made empty promises to us in the past, but thanks to the PRT, this time we have received the tractors and we are moving forward," Kako said.

"These tractors will plow the land much deeper, allowing the soil to retain moisture much longer, allowing the seeds to grow much stronger yielding better crops."

"The land is very tired," said Anwar Kako, cousin of George Kako and member of the organization.

Local businessman George Kako presents a certificate of appreciation to Jason Hyland of the Dept. of State PRT, for his efforts to assist several farmers associations across Ninewah province, Iraq.

"Originally we had primitive harvesting and plowing tools, but these tractors will dig the soil much better. When we finish with the tractors, we will take them to other farms in the community and allow them to use them so that our whole community is more productive."

Iraq's harsh climate can make it difficult to produce healthy, frequent and consistent crops. The hot, arid summers make farming heavily dependant on the rain. Fertilizers are required to make the soil usable.

"Things like fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation systems will be cheaper to purchase because together as an organization we will buy in bulk," said Anwar Kako.

"We are working together to buy sprayers and wells so that we don't rely on rain and fertilizer for better soil."

Iraqi Sunnis, Shias and Christian members of the Brotherhood Union for Agricultural Development and Environmental Protection dig into an traditional Iraqi meal with members of the U.S. Dept. of State PRT, March 20th in Mosul, Iraq.

This is just the beginning of this agricultural community, but farmers and the U.S. Dept. of State say they are committed to these association's causes and are working for a brighter future, regardless of culture or religious beliefs.

"We are hopeful that this country will experience the agriculture revolution that many European countries have experienced," said Kako.

"As Iraqis, multi ethnicity is a part of who we are. It's the terrorists who imported all of these ideas of hatred from abroad. We ourselves are one country irrespective of our creed or our origin."

Word of the org's success is spreading across northern Iraq and several more associations are surfacing, 18 more in Ninewah Province over the last six weeks.

"We're very happy that Iraqis across the province are already reaching out to each other to find an institutional response to some of their hardest economic questions," said Hankey.

"We are really encouraged that this idea is taking off. Every week we are finding out that there are more and more farmers throughout the province who are looking at copying this model and finding that putting local cooperation into finding common responses to shared problems can help them address some of their most urgent needs."

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