The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) signed a Record of Discussions (R/D) with the Kurdistan Regional Government of the Republic of Iraq on March 29 in Erbil on the technical cooperation project “Kurdistan Agricultural Experiment Center Operational Enhancement Project.
In Iraq, agriculture accounts for the majority of employment in rural areas and is positioned as an important industry for the country’s recovery from conflict and its transition away from an oil-dependent economy. However, repeated conflicts and droughts have led to the degradation of farmland, and the introduction of modern agricultural technology has stalled. In the Kurdistan Region, an autonomous Kurdish administrative region in northern Iraq, government research institutes have limited knowledge of agricultural technology, and many farmers are engaged in remote areas, which means that government guidance on agricultural technology to farmers is inadequate, resulting in the failure to produce high quality crops. Therefore, improvement of agricultural technology is a priority, and the Agricultural Experiment Center, which is in charge of improving crop varieties and developing new agricultural technology, is positioned as the core of this effort.
© Source JICA