Agricultural value chain study in Iraq Dates, grapes, tomatoes and wheat | WFP | FAO

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Iraq would like to thank a number of partners for their support in generating this very informative report on the value chains of dates, grapes, tomatoes and wheat in Iraq that is to be used by members of the Food Security Cluster, the Donor Coordination Group on Agriculture and Water, the Government of Iraq as well as the private sector. In particular, thanks is due to:

• the REACH Initiative team for conducting the assessment, covering survey instrument design, data collection, analysis and report writing. A special thanks to Mr Gianluca Nocera, as the lead consultant on the project;

• the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) and the respective governorate directorates for connecting the research team with farmers and value chain actors for this assessment;

• many thanks to the World Food Programme in Iraq (WFP) for their financial support as well as technical support from their VAM and M&E team led by Fawad Raza for reviewing the report and providing valuable feedback. Thanks also to Saman Ahmed, Mosa Dahab, Najla Suhail, Khansaa Ghazi and Neiaz Ibrahim for coordinating the key informant discussions with the government officials and other stakeholders;

• farmers, value chain actors and key informants who informed this exercise and for whom this research aims to deliver benefits;

• Jozimo SantosRocha and Jennifer Smolak from the Agribusiness and Value Chains team in Cairo (FAO’s Regional Office for the Near East and Northern Africa) for their detailed comments; and finally

• the team from FAO-Iraq itself - under guidance of Dr. Salah Hajj Al Hassan (FAO Representative) a core team of experts contributed to the design, data collection, analysis, review and editing of the report: Rene Verduijn (lead), Sarah Barnhart, Sami Bilal, Khalid Shlash, Nakd Khamis and Farooq Malazada.