Geographical factors and their impact on food self-sufficiency in Iraq

Food security is one of the most important topics that are commonly used in the economic, political and national security of countries. If food security is not achieved, food security is not achieved. Therefore, the danger will threaten the security of these countries. Of the indicators of the power of the state, but in the forefront of these indicators.For more than a quarter of a century, the problem of food security has been at the top of the list of problems facing third world countries in general and Arab countries in particular, including Iraq, where two countries suffered major crises over the course of the second half of the 20th century.The first crisis is foreign indebtedness, the second is the food security crisis and the retreat of self-sufficiency in the main food commodities. Despite the close correlation between the two phenomena of debt and food security in terms of policies leading to them, the treatment of these crises is subject to internal variables (local and external).The study focused on reviewing the basic concepts of the phenomenon of food security and self-sufficiency, as well as knowledge of the characteristics of the population because of their important role in agricultural activity in the first two is the amount of what the population needs of the main food and the second by providing manpower in agricultural activity.The second topic concerned the study of the natural factors affecting the agricultural activity in Iraq, which came in the forefront of characteristics of the climate of Iraq because of its influence in the cultivation of strategic plant crops, which is the pillar of food security, as well as the characteristics of the soil because of their impact on the quantity and quality of agricultural production, This topic also addressed the study of the characteristics of Iraq s water resources and its impact on agricultural production in Iraq.The third study included the study of the human factors affecting the agricultural activity, which included the agricultural policies followed, as well as the review of the problems facing the agricultural activity in Iraq, the most prominent phenomenon of desertification.The third section shows the actual production of basic crops in Iraq (wheat, barley, rice and maize) The study concluded with the conclusions that were the outcome of the study, which supported the data from the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture and related to the context of the research study and then put the researchers a number of recommendations that will address the agricultural reality.