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Rome (pte045/28.04.2003/15:44) - At least one third of the spring harvest in Iraq has been unscathed by the war, according to first estimates released today by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation http://www.fao.org . The information is based on reports from co-workers in Iraq. The FAO cautions that the state of the winter harvest remains uncertain.
The northern regional districts of Erbil and Dohuk Sulaimaniya are expected to produce between 30 and 35 per cent of the 1.7 million tons of grain to be harvested this year. If the harvest in the north is carried out as planned, the FAO predicts that the food shortage can be reduced by 500,000 tons of wheat and barley - otherwise the same amount would have to be imported.
The situation in the 18 southern and central districts is less clear, especially in the grain-producing region between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers south of Baghdad. It is still too early to make predictions about the harvest in this area, which usually supplies about a third of the country's grain. The FAO expects lack of irrigation during and after the war to create problems. Higher fuel prices are also affecting the highly mechanized agricultural system in Iraq, with the price of petrol climbing by 50 to 75 per cent. (newsfox-special Iraq)
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