Assist. Prof. Dr. Abdullsamad Hashim Noaman

    Cotton is one of the most important fiber crops in the world. It is one of the important export industrial crops.  From a taxonomic point of view, cotton hair is use in the textile industry, while cotton seed is one of the sources of  important oils and its waste is used in the manufacture of feed. Cotton production represents an important income for the  country that produces it, as it provides means of work for a large proportion of the population, which is not limited to  agriculture only, but also goes beyond it to work in gins, spinning and weaving factories, and other industries and marketing.

Iraq still suffers from a shortage in cotton production, and what is produced locally is only a small percentage of the actual  cotton need. The reason for this is due to the high production costs due to inflation imported from other industrialized countries,  and the lack of environmentally friendly cotton varieties. And since the economic importance of the cotton crop increases due to the increase in demand for clothing and edible oil, as cotton is produced in many countries of the world that have the appropriate conditions and environment for its cultivation, but eight countries produce about 82% of global production and these countries (Russia, China, America, India, Pakistan, Brazil, Turkey and Egypt).

About ten varieties of cotton are grown in Iraq, with different characteristics between the size of the ball and length of the lint. The cultivated areas have decreased during the current period in the areas of cotton production in Iraq due to the agricultural policy and the imbalance between revenues and expenses compared to other alternative crops such as corn, sunflower and other crops. In addition to the deterioration of the productivity of the cultivated varieties and their infection with many pests, so the fluctuation in the prices of some inputs, whether the prices of materials such as seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and workers’ wages, as well as to some outputs, some of which fall out of control, such as prices or the receipt of crops by the state, and therefore cannot be controlled and avoided from Before the farmers, and perhaps the income that is achieved may not be commensurate with the costs of the inputs and the efforts made in cultivating the crop, making this one of the most important reasons for the farmers’ reluctance to grow this crop.

Accordingly, the most important reasons that led to the decline in cotton productivity can be summarized as follows:

1. Failure to follow the correct agricultural processes, which are: