How tenable is the boom in Kurdistan Region greenhouse farming?
The idea of greenhouse farming in the Kurdistan Region dates back to 2007, after a seven-member-expert-team visited the Spanish city of Murcia. The KRG agriculture ministry subsequently piloted the opening of eight greenhouses for the planting of cucumbers and tomatoes.
The pilot was a success, leading to the establishment of more than 1600 greenhouses from 2008 to 2011.
The number of greenhouses has since grown exponentially. In 2019 alone, 3,300 greenhouses were established, according to the KRG Ministry of Agriculture, the vast majority of which are in the province of Sulaimani.
They are now home to celery, cucumber, tomato, pepper, eggplant, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower and okra, among other kinds of produce.
"The economic benefits of planting underneath greenhouses, and the plummet of investment in other sectors, has encouraged a large number of people to invest in the agriculture sector, especially through establishing greenhouses," Kamal Mohammed, in charge of greenhouses projects at the Ministry of Agriculture, told Rudaw.
"The total output of domestically-grown vegetables was around 475,000 tons in 2014, while in 2018 it was 700,000," Mohammed said - a 31 percent increase, of which 70 percent can be attributed to greenhouse projects.
The springing up of greenhouses has allowed for the all year round growth of vegetables that could once only be imported.
"In the past, you would not have found some of these vegetables in the markets unless they were imported. But since we have greenhouses now, we’re able to have seasonal products in the markets throughout the year. We even export some of them to other parts of Iraq," he noted.
With the Kurdistan Region’s economy bouncing back after years of warfare with Islamic State (ISIS), a greater earmark of funds to the agriculture sector will allow for the supply of subsidized seeds and supporting planting equipment to farmers at “half the cost,” said Govand Ibrahim, a greenhouse project manager for Sofi Companies Group.
Photo: Rudaw TV
But as people across the Region have turned to the sector in droves, it seems as though vegetable supply has reached saturation point.
"A large number of people have turned to farming. The planting of vegetables, notably cucumbers, has vastly increased, and farmers are having problems selling them," Hawraman Mohammed, head of the Greenhouses Development Society, told Rudaw.
He criticizes the government for lack of support, adding that it is the government's responsibility to find markets for farmers.
Despite the variety of vegetables grown at greenhouses, project owners say they are struggling to shift their products, particularly tomatoes and cucumbers, due to growing imports from Iran at lower prices than those grown in the Region.
"Iranian tomato and cucumber imports intended for the rest of Iraq ends up in the Region's markets," explains Ibrahim.
In an effort to support farmers’ products, the agriculture ministry has placed a 350 Iraqi dinar per kilo levy on imported vegetables, the majority of which are from Turkey and Iran. They are, however, still cheaper than those that are domestically produced.