Since the beginning of recorded time, agriculture has been the
primary economic activity of the people of Iraq. In 1976, agriculture
contributed about 8 percent of Iraq's total GDP, and it employed
more than half the total labor force. In 1986, despite a ten-year
Iraqi investment in agricultural development that totaled more
than US$4 billion, the sector still accounted for only 7.5 percent
of total GDP, a figure that was predicted to decline. In 1986
agriculture continued to employ a significant portion--about 30
percent--of Iraq's total labor force. Part of the reason the agricultural
share of GDP remained small was that the sector was overwhelmed
by expansion of the oil sector, which boosted total GDP.
Large year-to-year fluctuations in Iraqi harvests, caused by
variability in the amount of rainfall, made estimates of average
production problematic, but statistics indicated that the production
levels for key grain crops remained approximately stable from
the 1960s through the 1980s, with yield increasing while total
cultivated area declined. Increasing Iraqi food imports were indicative
of agricultural stagnation. In the late 1950s, Iraq was self-sufficient
in agricultural production, but in the 1960s it imported about
15 percent of its food supplies, and by the 1970s it imported
about 33 percent of its food. By the early 1980s, food imports
accounted for about 15 percent of total imports, and in 1984,
according to Iraqi statistics, food imports comprised about 22
percent of total imports. Many experts expressed the opinion that
Iraq had the potential for substantial agricultural growth, but
restrictions on water supplies, caused by Syrian and Turkish dam
building on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, might limit this
expansion.
Country
name Iraq conventional long form Republic of Iraq conventional
short form Iraq local long form Al Jumhuriyah al Iraqiyah local short form Al Iraq
Area
- total: 437,072 sq km land: 432,162 sq km water: 4,910 sq km
Geographic
Location - Middle East, bordering the Persian Gulf, between Iran and Kuwait
Terrain
- Mostly broad plains; reedy marshes along Iranian border in south with large
flooded areas; mountains along borders with Iran and Turkey
Climate- Mostly desert; mild to cool winters with dry, hot, cloudless summers; northern
mountainous regions along Iranian and Turkish borders experience cold winters
with occasionally heavy snows that melt in early spring, sometimes causing extensive
flooding in central and southern Iraq
Geography
- Strategic location on Shatt al Arab waterway and at the head of the Persian
Gulf
Waterways
- 1,015 km note: Shatt al Arab is usually navigable by maritime traffic
for about 130 km; channel has been dredged to 3 m and is in use; Tigris and Euphrates
Rivers have navigable sections for shallow-draft boats; Shatt al Basrah canal
was navigable by shallow-draft craft before closing in 1991 because of the Gulf
war
Information
Courtesy: The Library of Congress - Country Studies
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