Agriculture and Irrigation Committee meet with Iraq's President Barham Salih and Trade Minister Alaa Al-Jabouri

9 December - A delegation of the committee, led by the chair Abdulsatar Majeed (KIG), in Baghdad met with Iraq’s President Barham Salih and Iraq’s Trade Minister Alaa Al-Jabouri.

The committee said that the purpose of their visit is to investigate and make efforts to get Kurdistan farmers’ financial dues owed by Baghdad for their wheat production.

At the meeting, President Salih contacted Minister Al-Jabouri to resolve the matter with Kurdistan Parliament's Agriculture Committee.

President Salih expressed his full support for the efforts of the Kurdistan Parliament committee.

The committee met separately with Trade Minister Al-Jabouri. Committee chair Mr. Majeed said, “The funds owed to Kurdistan Region’s farmers for 2014, 2015 and 2016 have not yet been paid by the Iraqi Ministry of Commerce, so we have come to find an agreement on giving the farmers the payments.”

The committee told Iraq’s Trade Minister that for the past three years the farmers are owed 557 billion Iraqi dinars, which must be paid to them.

Minister Al-Jabouri said, "The wheat payments for farmers have been protected for the past three years at the Trade Ministry and remain protected until a mechanism for making the payments has been determined.”

Minister Al-Jabouri said that he will meet with President Salih early next week to agree on a suitable mechanism for paying Kurdistan Region's farmers in stages.