1) Impact of COVID-19 outbreak in NENA region
FAO Iraq is in the process of collecting data from various stakeholders to assess the impact of COVID-19 on agriculture and the food supply chain. Staff are conducting key informant interviews with government officials and extension officers, in addition to questionnaires with farmers and agriculture input suppliers. Understanding the perspective of stakeholders along the agriculture and food supply chain will be essential to craft policy advice and develop effective programming. This data will also be included in a joint analysis of the food security situation in Iraq, which is published jointly with WFP, World Bank and IFAD.
2) Sustainable transition towards more sustainable agri-food systems
Climate change is anticipated to increase the mean annual temperature, result in more frequent heat waves and fewer frost days, and decrease mean annual average rainfall in Iraq. Thus, climate change is likely to result in longer and more severe drought and decreased water flow that, combined with anthropogenic activities and upstream riparian development of the Tigris and Euphrates (i.e. dams in Turkey), will decrease the amount of surface and groundwater available for agriculture. This will place more pressure on groundwater systems, with implications for water quality and quantity. Thus, farming systems will need to be able to continue to produce food with less water, requiring the adoption of water saving tools and techniques, both for irrigated and rainfed systems.
Digital innovation can transform the entire value chain; however, first Iraq must have the necessary infrastructure and enabling environment to promote the adoption of digital tools. Strides have been made and Iraq has publically announced that will focus on this issue in the future; however, additional work is needed to ensure that digital transformations do not increase the divide between rural-urban communities, in addition to the gender divide. IN order to ensure that the introduction of certain policies and programmes support this effort, more information is required on Examples of solutions includes precision agriculture (i.e. soil moisture sensors to optimize water delivery), digital remote extension services and technologies to track food safety (i.e. monitoring temperatures along the cold chain).
3) Towards an inclusive and equitable growth
Ensuring that marginalized and vulnerable groups have equal access to knowledge and information is the first key step to ensure equity in terms of access to services, resources and social protection programmes. Additionally, programmes should be adapted to accommodate for the different needs of these groups. For example, Cash for Work programmes should be modified to ensure that women, disabled and elderly individuals can participate equitably, rather than only providing activities that require hard labor. These activities should be culturally appropriate and realistic – for example, FAO Iraq ensured that vulnerable women could partake in a Cash for Work scheme by introducing one nursery rehabilitation activity, which allowed women to focus on planting trees and other less labor intensive tasks. Other options could be to pay individuals to provide childcare and other services.
Ms. Sarah Barnhart