Annales Horticulturae (Feb 2013)
Cultivation of date palm in Iraq
Abstract
Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is a major fruit crop in most Arab countries. It has been historically connected with sustaining human life and the tradition of the people in the old world as a major agricultural crop. Arab countries possess 70% of the 120 million date palms cultivated in different countries in the world and are responsible for 67% of the global date production. Iraq is one of the major producers of dates. During the past 50 years, date palm plantations in Iraq were subjected to degradation due to an extensive exploitation resulting from the increase in the human and domestic animals population. As much as 30% of the production can be potentially lost as a result of pests and diseases. Technical and socio-economic factors contributed to the decrease of date production. Recommendations for stopping the degradation in the date palm sector and strengthening this industry particularly for cultivation, harvesting, date processing and marketing in Iraq and in other Arab countries have been proposed.
