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Chapter 6 - Agriculture, Fisheries & Food
6-5 Food
There is dangerous assymetry in government and governance. Bad governance will always result in bad performance, but good governance on its own does not assure good performance. Many other elements are needed in order to have an effective enabling environment.
Food Overview
Food is an essential, and should be easily available for everyone. The food sector is driven by markets ... with more or less intervention from government to encourage a sustainable supply of food. This translates into government subsidies and various incentives to produce more or produce less, and modalities that put food into the market at prices that are below cost.
One of the purest examples of market is to be found in remote rural areas where food is exchanged in the market and reflects supply and demand in its most basic form.
Food in Iraq
Food production in Iraq should be highly productive ... there are the conditions for food production.
Food supply should also be more than adequate because there is the financial capacity to import any food that is required.
Food security is an important, and there should be no difficulty with this on a national level.
An area focus for food security
Some areas of Iraq may have local food shortages, and the local markets may be be sufficient to handle shortages that last for a long time. On balance, Iraq should be a food surplus producing area and can be an exporter of food. In spite of this, from time to time there are local food shortages. The area needs to have adequate capacity for food storage at the area and the community level.
An area focus for livestock security
Some areas of the country may need a mechanism to provide price stabilization for livestock. The normal cycle for livestock in the agro-pastoral context is for herds to increase in size when times are good, and then decline in difficult times. Good times produce over-grazing and accelerate the arrival and seriousness of bad times. At the same time, livestock prices follow a pattern that weakens the economy, just when it will do the most damage. A livestock price stabilization mechanism would make an immense difference to the economic performance of the sector, for the benefit of all. The price stabilization mechanism requires not only the funds to make purchasing interventions in the market, but a way for the product to be processed in a way that allows for the food value to be conserved for future use.
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