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Free from Saddam's yoke, Kurdish vineyards
bear fruit once more
15.8.2006 |
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BERI BAHAR,
Kurdistan-Iraq, August 15, 2006 (AFP) ,-- When
Saddam Hussein's warplanes bombed the picturesque
Kurdish village of Beri Bahar on April 24, 1987,
Mohammed Saleem gathered his family and ran for his
life.
The escape saved his loved ones, but when Saleem
returned four years later he found his only other
treasure -- his vineyard -- had been crushed under
the boots of the dictator's forces during their
genocidal "Anfal" campaign.
In 1991 Saddam was defeated by a US-led coalition in
the first Gulf War, and American aircraft began to
patrol a "no-fly zone" to prevent Saddam's return in
force to Kurdish lands. But they came too late for
Saleem's vines.
Now, three years after US troops returned to Iraq to
finally topple Saddam, the valleys of the northern
province of Dohuk are turning green once more.
"There was no need to destroy our farms and
vineyards. That was cruel. But by God's grace we are
bouncing back," said 53-year-old Saleem, crouching
under the trees in a vineyard on a hillock in Beri
Bahar, or "Before Spring".
This month, Saddam will go on trial for ordering the
Anfal campaign, in which nearly 100,000 Kurds were
killed and more than 3,000 villages destroyed --
some of them under barrages of poison-gas bombs.
During Iraq's war with Iran in the 1980s the
country's Kurdish minority had profited from the
chaos to develop their separatist ambitions.
Saddam's reaction was brutal and the region's
infrastructure was shattered.
Now, lush green vines supported by T-shaped concrete
trellises stand in Saleem's 2.5 hectare estate,
heavy with bunches of ripe green, red and purple
grape varieties ready to be sold in the Dohuk
market.
"It took me nearly a decade to nurture my vineyards
back to strength," says Saleem, whose vineyard is
part of a major project aimed at boosting the
region's grape production.
Saleem sold 30 tonnes of grapes last year at about
1,500 dinars (1.2 dollars) per kilogram. Now, he
says, he wants to make Iraq "self-sufficient in
grapes and not depend on imports from Turkey, Syria
or Saudi Arabia".
His neighbours are following suit, and now more and
more vineyards can be seen sprouting from plains and
hillsides throughout Dohuk province.
The Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, already used
to running its own affairs, has been spared the
mayhem gripping Baghdad and the west of the country,
where insurgent and sectarian attacks have killed
thousands.
Now the region is taking the lead in reviving grape
production.
"Not many know that grape is Iraq's first fruit,"
said horticulturist Zuhair al-Amil, who is helping
to restore vineyards in Kurdistan by using modern
technology provided by US-funded development
agencies.
"In the past two decades farmers suffered heavily
and grape production fell drastically," he
explained, noting that Iraq had about 43 million
vines in 1977, compared with only 35 million date
palms.
"War with Iran and the Anfal attacks destroyed
nearly 10 million plants. We want to rebuild the
crop now as Iraq has the ability to produce various
varieties of grapes," he added.
To boost production, the US-funded Agricultural
Reconstruction and Development Project of Iraq (ARDI)
launched a project to help Kurdish farmers plant
more grape seedlings.
"We provide them with new technology like drip
irrigation, we teach them how to prune the crop and
also make them aware of new trellising systems,"
said Diego Hay, senior grants manager with ARDI.
Villages like Beri Bahar still use a traditional
furrow irrigation system for planting grapes which
offer a lower yield than drip irrigation.
Hay said the agency has set up three private sector
grape nurseries in each of three Kurdish provinces,
which have nurtured 1.2 million vine cuttings at a
cost to the United States of 28,000 dollars.
"These nurseries will produce seedlings which will
be sold to farmers in the entire country, who in
turn can plant them in their vineyards and raise new
crops based on new systems," Hay told AFP.
Farmers still fear, however, that water shortages
and a lack of proper cold storage for harvested
grapes could hamper development.
"We need water desperately," says Saleem, who lifts
rain water up to his vineyard from a small concrete
tank he has built at the base of the hill.
"I need a bigger tank. Many farmers like me need
more water, and with the help of drip irrigation
systems we can even use water more judiciously."
The modernisation of Kurdistan's vineyards is good
for business, but one potential source of greater
profit margins will have to remain untapped. No one
in this largely Muslim region is producing any wine.
"I am a Hajji. How can I make wine from my grapes?"
says 50-year-old Kamal Khalid Mohammed, a farmer
with an agricultural engineering degree whose
two-hectare farm has been converted into Dohuk's
grape nursery.
A devout Muslim who has been on the Haj pilgrimage
to Mecca, Mohammed says he would not support a
domestic wine industry despite the prospect of more
lucrative margins.
"We will produce grapes for making juice,
confectionery and as a table fruit -- but we are
staying away from wine."
AFP
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