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The Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture announced on Thursday contracts with international companies to cover 3.5 million dunums with modern irrigation systems, while continuing to support farmers and modernize the agricultural sector to face challenges.

The spokesman for the Ministry of Agriculture, Mahdi Sahar al-Jubouri, said that "the agricultural sector in Iraq faces major challenges, represented by climate change, low water revenues, low rainfall rates, and production risks represented by drought."

He added that "there are problems in the marketing process (sorting, packaging, and packing) for all agricultural products and marketing them abroad," explaining that "the marketing process adds value instead of exporting products as raw materials outside Iraq," according to the Iraqi News Agency "WAA".

He pointed out that "a policy has been set in the Ministry of Agriculture to address challenges, climate change, and low water revenues by shifting to modern fields and using modern irrigation systems."

He said that "contracts were made with major international companies to supply the agricultural sector with more than 13,000 systems covering about 3.5 million dunums, relying on groundwater and reducing pressure on surface water in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, thus preserving cultivated areas and agricultural production, in addition to other uses such as drinking and industrial uses."

Al-Jubouri added that "the agricultural sector consumes more than 70% of the water coming to Iraq, and the use of modern irrigation systems has led to rationalizing water use and increasing production, especially in the past four years, where self-sufficiency in wheat, the important strategic crop, and food crops was achieved."

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