VZCZCXRO7667
RR RUEHBC RUEHDA RUEHDE RUEHIHL RUEHKUK
DE RUEHGB #1111/01 1001628
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 091628Z APR 08
FM AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6769
INFO RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE
RUEHRC/USDA FAS WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RHMFISS/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 001111 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PASS USAID 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON EAGR SENV EAID PGOV PHUM IZ
SUBJECT: NINEWA: WIDE-RANGING PRT SUPPORT BOOSTS 
AGRICULTURAL SECTOR 
 
This is a Ninewa Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) message. 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1. (SBU) Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) Ninewa has 
worked closely over the last year with farmers, produce 
processors and GOI agencies to support the province's 
struggling agricultural sector.  The sector is crucial to 
fighting provincial unemployment: rural residents rely on 
grain production, processors add jobs at canning and 
packaging factories, and merchants employ shippers and 
traders.  Several of the PRT's agricultural projects have led 
to concrete successes in economic development and community 
organizing this year. 
 
Tractors Pull Groups Together 
and Finance Input Purchases 
------------------------------ 
 
¶2. (SBU) Using USD 225,000 in Quick Response Funds (QRF), the 
PRT in March 2008 donated nine Case-New Holland tractors to 
three multi-ethnic/multi-sectarian farmers' associations 
across rural Ninewa.  The PRT targeted the tractor donation 
to serve dual goals.  First, it directed industrial demand 
toward the Askandariya-based State Company for Mechanical 
Industries, a major target of DOD's Task Force for Business 
and Stability Operations (TF-BSO).  Second, it provided an 
incentive for Kurds, Sunni Arabs, Shia Shabak and various 
Christian sects to join their local association.  The local 
Director General (DG) of Agriculture committed to provide 
training on modern tractor use to the associations' members. 
The PRT facilitated media coverage of the associations 
through Coalition Forces and Embassy media offices. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Where some of the sects involved in the associations 
have historically engaged in competition and conflict, they 
are now dedicated through the associations to finding common 
solutions to shared agricultural problems, such as high 
prices for farm inputs like seed, fertilizer and fuel.  In 
one association, community leaders have already more than 
matched the PRT's donation with their own funds for plows and 
harvesting equipment that guarantees true local buy-in.  In 
another, community leaders bought spraying equipment that has 
already been deployed with the tractors to apply pesticides 
to this year's grain crop.  The associations hope not only to 
use the tractors themselves, but also rent them out.  Rental 
profits will be plowed back into the associations for the 
joint use of all members to buy needed farm inputs. 
 
Institutional Benefits Spreading 
Throughout Province 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) The first three diverse farm associations mentioned 
above are only a beginning.  Word-of-mouth and recognition of 
the benefits gained from grassroots organizing have already 
prompted the leaders of more than 20 additional associations 
to approach the PRT for assistance with organizing and 
government advocacy.  The PRT plans to assist each with 
financial management training, basic equipment support to 
their offices and connections to legal advice on how best to 
organize and register. 
 
Ground-breaking Meetings 
Among Provincial Leaders 
-------------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) In February, the PRT facilitated the first ever 
meeting of the DG of Agriculture and the leadership of the 
Agriculture Committee of the Provincial Council.  Given the 
current severe drought and shortage of fuel needed to run 
irrigation pumps, the DG said the province's grain production 
would be 25 percent of its potential this year and that sheep 
herders face drastic cuts to their herds.  In a stop-gap 
measure, the DG and the Provincial Council agreed to work 
together to deliver government-purchased fodder for sheep 
herds.  The first deliveries were made in mid-March. 
 
Support for Financing and Processors 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶6. (SBU) Going beyond producers, the PRT is working closely 
 
BAGHDAD 00001111  002 OF 002 
 
 
with USAID's Inma program to explore support to tomato, 
sesame paste and fodder processors across the province.  In 
addition, the PRT in March hosted the first joint meeting 
among representatives of the Agricultural Bank and rural 
processors interested in formal financing for packaging 
plants.  The meeting gave the processors their first 
opportunity to speak directly with the bank about the 
specifics of the loan application process.  Follow-up 
meetings are planned to help the processors pursue financing 
opportunities. 
 
Long-term Support With Training and Infrastructure 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
¶7. (SBU) Looking to the future, the PRT is working closely 
with academic leaders and the agricultural extension service 
to build the GOI's capacity to train Iraqi farmers in methods 
they may not have had exposure to under the Saddam regime. 
In addition, the PRT is supporting meetings and discussions 
between the GOI and local leaders to discuss directly how 
Iraqi money could be spent to improve irrigation canals and 
pumps in western Ninewa. 
 
Comment: Ninewa Farmers Benefit from Institutional Support 
--------------------------------------------- ------------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) Ninewa's farmers have benefited this year from real 
progress made with PRT programs, ranging from institutional 
support like farmers' associations and training to financing 
opportunities through Inma or local banks.  While neither the 
USG nor the GOI can directly address scarcity in the fuel, 
seed and fertilizer markets, joint efforts patterned on the 
PRT's successes in the last year offer a way for farmers and 
GOI officials to pursue collaboratively their own long-term 
solutions. 
BUTENIS