During the period June 1st, 2023 to May 31st, 2024
from 9:00 AM to 04:00 PM (Local Duhok Time).
The training course was held in the Hamdaniya, Bashiqa and Tal Keif districts.
Supervisor:
Dr. Nabaz Ibrahim Mohammed nabaz.mohammed@uod.ac
Dr. Nashwan Shawkat Mizzouri nashwan.shawkat@uod.ac
List of trainers (UoD visiting team):
Dr. Shawkat A. M Sadeq
Dr. Fathi A. Omer
Dr. Hojeen M. Abdullah
Background:
Nineveh Plain is considered the "breadbasket” of Iraq, and it is one of the most fertile plains in the country. In 2014, the Nineveh Plain territory was overtaken by the Islamic State of Iraq (ISIS). Close to one million people are estimated to have fled their homes, and at least 20,000 commercial and government buildings, including schools, animal projects, and training institutions, were destroyed.
The USAID-funded Support to Traditional Cultural Practices in Northern Iraq project is studying the challenges facing agricultural production in Nineveh Plains. The Ninewa province also remains the most severely inflicted governorate by the conflict, with over 331,170 still displaced (according to the IOM Iraq Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM), March 2020). The International Organization for Migration (IOM) examined the factors behind protracted displacement in Iraq by analyzing the main districts of origin and identifying the obstacles to return for IDPs (IOM Iraq, 2019b). The study revealed average to very low intention to return among both out-of-camp and in-camp IDPs.
This project covers a comprehensive survey of the challenges facing the agricultural sector based on districts and minorities in the Nineveh Plains region. A literature review and stakeholder interviews have guided strategies Objectives of the study, identify key obstacles to crop production in the Nineveh Plains (Hamdaniya, Telkaif, and Bashiqa), Demonstrate the impact of production inputs and governmental aid on Livestock, vegetables, and field crop production, Marketing challenges and opportunities of crop production, Highlight farmer requirements and challenges for sustaining crop production in the Nineveh Plains.
Overview:
According to the intensive discussions among all related parts of the project from Purdue; USA and Duhok University; Iraq, is specified for preparing questionnaires for needs assessments and field visits for trust building. After finalizing a questionnaire to collect information from major agricultural cultural practices, regular field visits were conducted to cover a village sample of all minorities starting from Telkaif district and proposing a comprehensive training program, their requirements, and challenges to develop the agricultural restoration, understanding the challenges facing agricultural production (Field crop, horticulture, and animal production) in these districts.
Objectives:
The purpose of which to develop an overall research and analytic design of agricultural challenges that face farmers and agricultural agencies in these districts, that used as a key for further plans and guidelines for the Government institutes and research. Accordingly, the UoD team hold a lot of meetings and conducted several visits to perform these objectives.
Our team conducted visits to 27 villages of all minorities (Christian, Shabak, Yazidis, Turkmen and Kakai) living in the mentioned districts of Nineveh Plain and farmers have been trained.
Topics of Training:
- Alternatives (indication of the importance of more profitable products such as quail breeding and artificial insemination, Mushrooms, Broccoli, Corn, cauliflower, etc.
- Silage preparation, how to prepare silage from corn biomass for animal feeding, an alternative to get benefit from corn biomass after harvesting.
- Field Crops management
- Organic fertilizer preparation
- Soil and water testing before cultivation of land
- Beekeeping breeding and improvement
- Seed testing and qualified varieties
- Managing of soil fertilization
- Cycling and re-cycling for animal manure and forage crops
- Irrigation systems
- Mulches importance and Mulching crops
- Plastic house installation and management.
- Integrated Crop Management (ICM), with special concern on potato, Colorado beetle, and irrigation.
- Corn production and management, Fall season problems and solutions.
- Irrigation management of vegetables (leafy vegetables such as celery cabbage, turnip, onion, etc)
- Poultry project management and pest control
- Alternatives such as local poultry breeds and turkey fattening.
- Potato storage conditions and instructions.
- Protected cultivation systems (plastic house management)
- Soil and water testing and their impact on crop production
The link to those training and questionnaires will be a part of the UoD Media website on 20/5/2024.