http://www.ifporient.org/node/1486

Choc Therapy for the Kurdish Agricultural Model. An Anthropological Enquiry in Post-war Iraq

Iraqi Kurdistan as a part of Mesopotamia belong for 10000 years to the cradle of agriculture, especially for thousands wheat varieties. Today, after wars, scorched earth policy, Anfal, embargos, and occupations, this part of the world has become dependent for 80% of its food on imports. Only seven varieties of wheat continue to be grown. Thus although Iraq has given to this region a certain autonomy since 1991, by dint of money from oil revenues, considering autonomy in terms of food sovereignty raises the question: What kind of autonomy are we talking about when people become dependent for their food on imports?

As an anthropologist, I’m going to focus on the mechanisms that transformed subsistence farming into agriculture dependent on global chemical inputs and seed supplies, and on what it means for the inhabitants in terms of culture and identity. I intend to examine the issue of seed sovereignty over the time period from 1958, until after the revolution, and up to now.

I will base my analysis on the Bremer order 81, which imposed intellectual propriety rights over seeds during the American occupation, and will refer to different texts written by the USAID, in particular “the new agricultural program for Kurdistan”.

My focus is on the ways in which international governance is translated into local policies using standards and ‘security’ rules. I would like to show to what extent the changes in the agricultural model are not only a question of technical choice but have the political consequence of extinguishing agricultural knowledge and skills (poly-culture, crop rotations, water distribution networks) that were the very basis for the Kurdish claims for cultural identity and political ‘autonomy’.

Bénédicte BONZI :

After working for seven years in different organizations engaged in seeds issues (Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Le Réseau Semences Paysannes), I conducted fieldwork on food and seed sovereignty in Iraqi Kurdistan for a Master in anthropology at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris.

Kurdistan d’Irak, Thérapie du choc administrée à l’agri culture