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Kurdistan: Youth leave, imported crops
invade villages
3.4.2008
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April 3, 2008
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan region 'Iraq, --
“Like many villages in Kurdistan 'northern Iraq',
Qasri began relying on imported crops after the new
generation sought less difficult jobs in town,”
Hussein, a villager, said, offering a
pleasant-smelling herb. “We are left with this herb
that naturally grows in our village.”
Qasri is located at the foot of Mount Helqurd in
Kurdistan region. It enjoys fertile land and
abundant water but it lacks something important.
“Agriculture is no longer a core activity for the
population because the youth, as is the case with
most villages in Kurdistan region, left to the city
in search of clean jobs,” Hussein explained to VOI. |
Kurdish villager |
The 40 year- old villager noted, “We are unable to
meet our needs from cultivation and we started to
rely on imported crops.”
Derbaz, 21, who left his village to Erbil, capital
of Kurdistan region, said “our village Sablax lacks
basic services, a matter that makes life there
impossible.”
“Working as a farmer is no longer enough to feed my
family of eight,” the young man who is working now
in Erbil explained.
Although some people are still working in
cultivation in Kurdistan, some suffer a lot because
they lost their market to the imported crops.
“Agriculture needs good markets. Our produce now is
not sold as it used to be in the past as imports
killed the markets for our crops,” said Sabah, 19,
who left his village Shirawa for the town.
There were certain villages in Kurdistan known for
growing certain crops, but now they are not and they
became a market for imported crops.
Serbast, 17, from Bazian village said “Bazian
village in Sulaimaniyah, was famous for the
cultivation of rice, but now no rice for trade is
grown there.”
The local villagers in Bazian, according to Serbast,
use rice imported from Vietnam and other origins,
though some families there now “are cultivating rice
for family consumption.”
The change in the village work model was affected
not because of the migration of the young men only,
but also because many old people were obliged to
leave along with their sons who settled in the town.
Hassan, 52, notes “we used to spend months in
cultivation until we got the harvest, but now we
only sit down in coffee houses and depend on our
sons who earn higher salaries from their new jobs.”
“Even old men now depend on subsidies from the
government and no one is willing to work as a farmer
any more,” he ironically said.
A local governmental official attributed the
tendency among the youth to leave their villages for
the big cities to the lack of basic services,www.ekurd.net
absence of good schools,
and non-existence of amusement centers in the
villages.
“All basic services and good schools and youth
centers are not found in our villages, leading more
and more young men to look for better jobs and study
opportunities, not only in towns but also abroad,”
Thaher Salim said.
A sociologist mentions other causes for that trend
among the youth.
“Towns provide a greater spectrum of easy jobs
compared to the hard work that the cultivation
needs,” Tara S. said.
The sociologist adds that the town is “more
attractive to the young men compared to the
village.”
Whether solutions are found to tackle the youth
migration to towns or not, the question remains, “Is
that the only excuse for imported crops to invade
both the villages and towns alike?
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
VOI
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