Iraq Vows Half-Trillion Dinar Support for Farmers Amid Cries of Land Dispossession in Kirkuk

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – In a sweeping announcement aimed at bolstering Iraq's agricultural heartland, the Iraqi Ministry of Trade has declared that half a trillion dinars will be distributed to support farmers across all provinces, a move the central government says is designed to empower producers, enhance food security, and strengthen the national economy. 

Yet, for thousands of Kurdish farmers in the Kurdistani territories outside the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) administrative control, this grand promise from Baghdad stands in stark and bitter contrast to the menacing reality unfolding in their fields, where they face not government support, but state-backed intimidation, land seizures, and a systematic campaign of dispossession that leaves them wondering which to believe—the government's solemn oath or the tell-tale signs on the ground.

The official announcement from Baghdad painted a picture of a new era of government support for a vital sector. Iraqi Minister of Trade, Atheer Dawood al-Ghurairi, stated that the Prime Minister had personally approved the allocation of 500 billion dinars as part of an effort to "boost agricultural production." 

He emphasized that "the decision aims to empower farmers and provide the resources needed to advance the agricultural sector." 

This message was reinforced by Haider al-Karaawi, the Director General of the General Company for Grain Trading, who promised a "transparent and fair mechanism for distributing the funds" and framed the support as "an important step toward boosting farmers' confidence and encouraging them to increase their production."

For the farmers of the Kurdistan Region, who are set to receive their share of the funds, the payment is a welcome, if delayed, part of the annual agricultural cycle. Nawzad Sheikh Kamil, the Director General of Trade for the Kurdistan Region, confirmed to Kurdistan24 that the distribution has begun, though it will arrive in installments due to the later harvest season in the north.

But beyond the straightforward logistics of these payments, the chasm between Baghdad's rhetoric of empowerment and the lived experience of Kurdish farmers in areas like Kirkuk and Khurmatu has become a painful and defining feature of their daily existence. 

While ministry officials in the capital speak of boosting confidence, Kurdish farmers in the village of Tapa Sawz in the Khurmatu district, just to refer to an instance among many, are facing arrest warrants for daring to defend their ancestral properties from seizure. 

As previously reported by Kurdistan24, this village has become a flashpoint in what residents describe as a renewed and systematic campaign of Arabization.

In a tense standoff in late August, Arab settlers, supported by the Iraqi army, attempted to occupy 1,800 donums of farmland belonging to local Kurdish families, presenting defunct contracts issued during the former Baath regime as legal justification. 

The collective and successful refusal of the Kurdish farmers to yield only shifted the confrontation from the fields to the courts. 

In a move seen as blatant legal coercion, arrest warrants were issued for four Kurdish landowners, with the court demanding they surrender themselves, sign a pledge, and ultimately relinquish their lands. 

"I will not go before the court in any way, nor will I sign any pledge. We will not give up the land of our forefathers," one of the targeted farmers declared in an act of unwavering defiance, issuing a direct appeal to Kurdish officials to intervene.

This is not an isolated incident. Ahmed Jumaa, the representative of the Tapa Sawz farmers, recounted a painful history of displacement and a legal assault that has intensified since the events of October 2017. 

Critically, he revealed that the farmers possess an official letter from the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture stating that their land falls under Article 140 of the Constitution and that ownership should revert to its pre-Baathist status. 

This highlights a profound and dangerous disconnect, where one branch of the Iraqi state appears to uphold the farmers' rights on paper, while another, the security forces, actively supports those seeking to dispossess them on the ground.

This pattern of pressure is a persistent and troubling reality across the Kurdistani territories outside the KRG’s administration.

 In May, Kurdish farmers in Kirkuk reported that military units were actively preventing them from working their land and harvesting their crops, even on farms that were officially included in the Iraqi government's own wheat subsidy program. 

In another case, a Kirkuk court sentenced a Kurdish farmer, Ibrahim Tobzawayi, to a six-month suspended prison term after the Iraqi army filed a complaint against him for the simple act of building a house on his own ancestral land.

The plight of these farmers has drawn strong and consistent condemnation from the highest levels of the Kurdistan Region's leadership. 

President Masoud Barzani has warned that the scenes of harassment "remind us of the Anfal, chemical attacks, and genocide committed against our people." 

Prime Minister Masrour Barzani has been equally vocal, stating that these regions are "not disputed; they are occupied and separated territories" and reaffirming the KRG's unwavering commitment to defending farmers' rights through constitutional means.

This long and painful struggle is a direct legacy of the systematic Arabization policies of Saddam Hussein's regime, policies that Article 140 of the 2005 Iraqi Constitution was specifically designed to reverse. 

The perpetual stalling of its implementation has left land ownership in a legal limbo that is continuously and violently exploited. As the farmers of Tapa Sawz brace for their legal battle, and as their counterparts across Kirkuk face intimidation in their fields, the grand announcement of half a trillion dinars of support from Baghdad resonates with a hollow and bitter irony. 

For them, the promise of empowerment from the capital feels a world away, overshadowed by the immediate and tangible threat of dispossession, a threat often carried out under the watchful eyes of the very state now claiming to be their greatest champion.