Agricultural marketing in Iraq: an analysis of the variety of factors and processes underlying the marketing of Iraqi agricultural produce, with emphases on the potential for improving the marketing infrastructure

Abstract

Agricultural marketing in Iraq has witnessed major changes over the last three decades, and particularly during the 1970's, due to structural and distributional changes in both production and consumption as a consequence of the effect of market forces upon production and an increase in demand. Therefore, agricultural marketing in Iraq is faced with several problems. On the one hand these problems are caused by the continuing increase in demand as a result of the increase in population numbers partly due to natural increase and partly due to (temporary) foreign immigration and the relative increase in per capita income which has improved the purchasing power of the people, all of which have led to a growth in demand ahead of improvements in agricultural production and distribution. On the other hand, are the problems directly related to the physical geographical conditions of Iraq, to the past and present marketing systems and to the locational distribution of the areas of production? All these factors have imposed great pressures on the marketing system, which at the same time that it has become more government- controlled, has also had to come to terms with an increasing percentage of consumers who are entirely dependent upon the system for the supply of their needs, and a diminishing number of producers who need to be encouraged, above all by better price incentives, to be more efficient crop growers and animal raisers. The current system has kept pace with neither the general increase in demand, nor the further demand that most products be available all the year round. Therefore, this study aims to analyse the variety of factors and processes underlying the marketing of Iraqi agricultural produce, with emphasis on the spatial patterns and the potential for improving the infrastructure and managements.