Assist. Prof.Dr.  Adil Hais Abdulkafoor

Wheat productivity and food security

Wheat is one of the most significant cereal crops in the world, both in terms of the cultivated area and in terms of the resulting crop. Wheat cultivation is spread in the temperate region of the world in addition to the high lands in some tropical regions. Wheat is grown in the northern region of the world with a percentage of more than 90% of the total the lands planted with strategic crops.

In view of the great importance of wheat as a basic source of human food, worldwide statistics indicate a significant increase in productivity during the last period. It is noted that the worldwide area cultivated has increased about 37%, the local production of wheat in Iraq is about 4.5 million tons annually, and about one million tons are imported and mixed for the purposes of quality with the local product, which does not content gluten in the required amount. Since the insufficient local production of wheat for local consumption, as the difference is covered by import, there is an urgent need to work on increasing production so that the gap between production and consumption can be narrowed through four basic aspects:

A- Vertical development               B- Horizontal development

C - Rationalization of consumption               D - Price policy

First: Vertical Development: -

It means an increase in production from a unit area. In order to reach that, the factors affecting the quantity of production must be known, which is an overlapping set of factors such as: -

1) Soil fertility. 2) Varieties and their quality. 3) Dates and methods of planting. 4) Seeds and plant density. 5) Appropriate weather conditions. 6) Resistance to diseases and insects.7) Processes affecting the harvest. 8) The operations of threshing, winnowing, transporting and storing.

Second: Horizontal Development: -

It is meant to increase the cultivated area of ??wheat. However, there are many problems faced by the horizontal expansion of wheat cultivation, which are -