Kurdish farmers file lawsuit against Iraq trade minister for no payments
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Kurdish farmers filed a complaint at Iraq's administrative court in Baghdad against the trade minister as part of their continued demands for not providing full compensation for their last four years of crops sold to Baghdad.
"We just filed the lawsuit. We hope we become successful in our complaint and secure the farmers payments," Bashdar Hassan, volunteer lawyer, told Rudaw.
He added "unfortunately, they set the trial date very late, even though we tried hard, but their excuse was that 18 Iraqi provinces are on it and there was a lot of pressure."
The trial is scheduled on July 1.
Kurdish farmers visited the Iraqi Trade Minister Abdel Falah al-Sudani last month, warning if he did not provide the wheat growers’ compensation within 15 days, they would file a lawsuit.
The farmers, even if they failed to receive their payments, told Rudaw they would turn to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The recent row between Erbil and Baghdad over the size of the total production of wheat in Kurdistan Region has primarily troubled farmers in the Kurdish areas who have nowhere to store their crop while the Iraqi government refuses to buy their wheat, contrary to previous agreements, Kurds say.
In February, the Iraqi government announced it would compensate Kurdish farmers by only 17 percent for their 2017 crops, while farmers in other parts of Iraq would receive 80 percent compensation.
Iraq’s Ministry of Agriculture has announced, in order to buy Kurdish farmers wheat crop in the future, the farmers will need to give detailed and documented information about how and where they have produced their goods.
"We just filed the lawsuit. We hope we become successful in our complaint and secure the farmers payments," Bashdar Hassan, volunteer lawyer, told Rudaw.
He added "unfortunately, they set the trial date very late, even though we tried hard, but their excuse was that 18 Iraqi provinces are on it and there was a lot of pressure."
The trial is scheduled on July 1.
Kurdish farmers visited the Iraqi Trade Minister Abdel Falah al-Sudani last month, warning if he did not provide the wheat growers’ compensation within 15 days, they would file a lawsuit.
The trade minister is yet to respond to them.
"We did not come to beg," said another farmer. "We will restore our rights via complaints. We must win our case at the capital of Iraq."
The farmers, even if they failed to receive their payments, told Rudaw they would turn to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The recent row between Erbil and Baghdad over the size of the total production of wheat in Kurdistan Region has primarily troubled farmers in the Kurdish areas who have nowhere to store their crop while the Iraqi government refuses to buy their wheat, contrary to previous agreements, Kurds say.
In February, the Iraqi government announced it would compensate Kurdish farmers by only 17 percent for their 2017 crops, while farmers in other parts of Iraq would receive 80 percent compensation.
Iraq’s Ministry of Agriculture has announced, in order to buy Kurdish farmers wheat crop in the future, the farmers will need to give detailed and documented information about how and where they have produced their goods.