NINEWA: WIDE-RANGING PRT SUPPORT BOOSTS

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