By Rawa Abdulla
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Pomegranates are Iraqi Kurdistan’s most cherished fruit, a proud symbol of this region’s fertile soil and remarkable produce.
Thanks to a strong economy and increased support, farmers are producing more of the succulent fruit than in years past. Agriculture officials hope that pomegranates will be entirely locally grown within five years but significant challenges persist.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, the region’s annual pomegranate production is growing steadily and stands at 26,000 tons, supplying 55 percent of local demand. Over the last four years, the region has produced 90,000 tons of pomegranates, and the ministry is hoping to produce enough to stop importing the fruit altogether within five years.
In 2008 officials set a similar five-year sustainability goal but have not come close to meeting the target.
“According to our strategic plan, we should have become self-sufficient in producing all different kinds of fruit, including pomegranate, but unfortunately budget shortfalls have prevented us from fully implementing our plan,” said Hussein Hama Karim, director-general of forestry in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG.)
Agricultural experts say that Kurdistan is an ideal environment for growing pomegranates because of its moderate temperatures, dry climate and vast arable land. The best-known varieties come from Halabja and Sharaban, both near the Iranian border.
Karim said the Ministry of Agriculture considers pomegranates a vital fruit, which enables farmers to quality for additional support.
From 2009 to 2011, the ministry provided 76 farmers with 196 million dinars ($170,000) in order to build 232 Donums of pomegranate farms that use modern irrigation and farming systems. Karim said the goal “was to encourage other farms to follow the same system.”
“Demand for planting pomegranate orchards has gone up,” he said. “I expect that within five years we will reach sustainability.”
However, Karim also cited a Kurdistan Board of Investment study that found from 2006 until June 2014, less than 4 percent of overall investments were directed at agriculture projects. Only half of the 25 agricultural projects were completed.
Fazil Abdulla, a 53-year old farmer, produced over 25 tons of pomegranates. Abdulla said, “We have strong production every year, but we have transportation problems.”
“We don’t receive that much support,” he maintained. “For instance, my farm needs 1.5 tons of fertilizer but I only get 200 kilograms from the ministry.”
Nuri Ismael, director of marketing at the Ministry of Agriculture, said the previous Agriculture Minister in 2012 cut transportation funds, which covered about 60 percent of transport costs, because he “believed that providing more fertilizer to farmers would be more effective than covering transportation costs. But this didn’t work well for farmers because they aren’t given enough fertilizer.”
He said to support Kurdish orchards, the import of pomegranates is banned from August 15 until December 15 because local production can meet demand during this period.
Ismael maintained that there is demand for Kurdish pomegranates from Gulf and European nations but they are not exporting the fruit.
Abdurrahman Omer, director-general of agriculture in Erbil, said pomegranate farms face many challenges including inefficient irrigation systems and worms that infest trees.
“Sometimes farmers water their plants inconsistently. This causes a lot of damage to the tree, because too much watering after a tree has been parched for a long time introduces many physiological diseases to the pomegranates and causes the skin to crack,” he said.
Omer advised farmers to spray their farms with pesticides every two weeks to kill off worms starting as early as May. Fall is the height of pomegranate season.
“The worm does a lot of damage by creating a hole in the pomegranate and that causes pomegranate to decay,” he said.
