Dates or oil? Iraq's farmers fear gold rush

[sabra]

Source: Reuters

ZUBAIR, Iraq, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Jaleel Jabr al-Fartusi has worked his acreage near the oil hub of Basra since 1970 but could lose it in Iraq's post-war rush for the black gold that lies below the plot he harvests for tomatoes and cucumbers.

Contracts awarded to global oil firms that could boost Iraq's production capacity to 12 million barrels per day from 2.5 million now are a possible lifeline for a country left in ruins by decades of war, sanctions and economic decline.

But they might be a misfortune for farmers like Fartusi, whose fields lie over the 4-billion-barrel Zubair oilfield.

"I have been growing on this land for 40 years, since I was a child. If they do it (take our lands), I will be like a naked person in public, having nothing to live off," said Fartusi, 55, who works five farms in Zubair.

Oil Ministry spokesman Asim Jihad said the government would offer compensation of cash or other land in some cases but the state was the rightful owner of the oilfields.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE67H0ZN20100818

[polly7]

1. I was wondering how long it would take before every sq km of Iraq

was seismographed and planned for drilling. I'm sure Monsanto will introduce these farmers to seeds that can propogate on asphalt, cement, wherever .......... who needs actual farmland? http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/5908-the-last-days-of-mexican-corn

"?Native seeds are under siege from pole to pole. In Iraq, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers come together to form the birthplace of agriculture, one of the very first acts of George Bush's neo-colonial satrap L. Paul Brenner was to issue the notorious Order 81 criminalizing the possession of native seeds. The U.S. military spread out throughout the land distributing little packets of GMO seeds, the euphemistically dubbed Operation 'Amber Waves.' To make sure that Iraq would no longer have a native agriculture, the national seed bank, located at Abu Ghraib, was looted and set afire."


Sarcasm aside, this is heartbreaking. Iraq has long been 'the birthplace of agriculture'. What else has this lying war destroyed.