Managing Expectations

Part of the reason I haven’t written an update in awhile is that the central subject of what I had intended to write about—our final presentation to the governor—has been delayed now for the third time. Our original intention in delivering our findings and recommendations to the governor was to include all the agricultural association farmer-leaders and agri-businessmen that we have met during our two months here. First, the governor’s agricultural advisor asked to see a copy of our presentation, presumably to see if there were any unacceptable findings or recommendations. We complied and also sent him a list of names of people we wanted to invite to the presentation. After a couple of days he said that no farmers would be invited to the meeting with the governor, which would only be attended by government people. The reasons for his delaying tactics and agenda were transparent. He was trying to manipulate the process to exclude the farmers and to ensure that any projects that might flow from our recommendations would be run through the government, which is the last thing we are ever going to do because they bring nothing to the table. They perceive that we represent a “gravy train” of big infrastructure projects, but we made it clear from the beginning that our focus was on small demonstration projects and others focused on building capacity of the agricultural associations for self-sufficiency.

As a point of background, when we arrived here we became involved in trying to resolve some problems associated with the distribution of tractors to some farmers associations by the British army, who left here in June. The governor’s ag advisor and the Director General (DG) of Agriculture for the province felt left out of the process (and they were, deliberately so). The tractors were given directly to the ag associations to avoid any potential malfeasance on the part of the government. We were helping to resolve some of the issues around registering the tractors and helping the ag associations develop a process for fair distribution. This is the time of year when tractors need to be in the field to prepare the land for the upcoming growing season. So, this is the backdrop for the govenor’s ag advisor and the DG for Agriculture’s behavior toward us.

On top of the obstructions placed before us by the government ag peoples, a couple of the BBAs (bi-lingual, bi-cultural advisors) on the PRT were advising us not to invite the farmers to the meeting at the governor’s office. They said simply: “You can’t invite uneducated farmers to the governor’s office.” They also said that giving projects to ag associations is like “giving computers to first-graders.” It was amazing the extent to which these guys were trying to promote what has been a dysfunctional government when it comes to helping farmers. They even (half)-joked with us that we should be sure to invite Moqtada al Sadr to the briefing because all the farmers are reputed to be Sadrists. Foolishly I took the bait and said, “So, should people have to pass a political litmus test before they receive the benefit of any projects?” They just twisted the knife further basically saying that I was playing into the hands of the enemy. It was all a bit too much for me because these guys are supposedly on our side and are supposed to be giving principled advice, not directly manipulating the process. It was also clear that they were speaking from a point-of-view that reflected contact primarily with government officials and almost never with the farmers that we have been meeting almost daily.

After finally resolving the issue of the invitation list by essentially capitulating to the requirements of the government ag officials, we had our next date scheduled. The governor was actually here at the PRT for a meeting and we managed to confirm the meeting with him personally. Then, the day before our meeting, we received news that a prominent Shiite politician, Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim, had died while receiving treatment for lung cancer in Tehran. We were told that the plan was to bring his body to Basrah airport, where it would be received by pilgrims and carried on foot to Najaf for burial there. In the absence of the PRT leader and deputy leader, the senior military officer in charge made the command decision to cancel all movements for four days until the situation played out. In the end, Mr. Hakim’s body went first to Baghdad before going to Karbala and then Najaf, never even coming to Basrah. This was a frustrating time for us because we were anxious to meet with the governor and, in any case, we like to get “outside the wire” as much as we can. Our team leader likened us to “thoroughbreds in the barn.” We like to get out and run!

After re-setting the meeting date yet again, we received word that the governor was in Baghdad and would not be available on the date scheduled. We were not too upset this time because we knew that the governor was visiting with Prime Minister Maliki to lobby on behalf of an important water infrastructure project. Iraq has been experiencing a severe drought for the last three years. One of the results has been the intrusion of seawater from the Persian Gulf (here in Iraq known as the Arabian Gulf) into the Shatt al Arab waterway. The Shatt is used as a source of irrigation water, cooling water for power plants and petrochemical factories, and in some places for drinking water. All of these uses have been severely impacted by the increase in salinity of the Shatt. There is a humanitarian crisis with the availability of drinking water for the residents of Fao, at the very end of the Shatt. The problem is complicated because the reasons for the lack of freshwater reaching Basrah are related to transboundary water issues (primarily with Turkey, but also Syria and Iran), the inefficient water use by farmers in Iraq, and the drought. The proposed “solution” is to construct a barrier across the Shatt al Arab at a point south of Basrah city to prevent seawater from moving upstream. The freshwater would be diverted to a canal that would run parallel to the Shatt and empty into the Gulf. That freshwater could be used for domestic supplies, crop irrigation, and industrial cooling water. The governor’s visit to Baghdad was apparently successful because we received word that the prime minister has committed US$1 billion to this barrier/diversion project. This is good news!

Well, the date for the meeting has now been set for tomorrow. In the past, we have given one final presentation, occasionally two. In this case, we are likely going to end up giving three final presentations. The first will be for the governor and government agricultural officials in the province (tomorrow). The second will be for all the agricultural association leaders, agri-businessmen, extension agents, university agricultural scientists, AND government agricultural officials. This will be more of an “agricultural summit” than exclusively a presentation of our findings. The final outbriefing will be for the PRT and the military command, especially because this base is now division headquarters for all of southern Iraq.

Our main message is that the primary way that agriculture can advance and the farmers can improve their situation is for the agricultural associations, government extension agents, and university research scientists to work together on demonstration projects of model farms or best practices. The other message is that farmers should seek ways to develop a capacity for self-sufficiency because the level of support that farmers received before 2003 when the country was isolated will never appear again. The funding for these demonstration projects and organizational capacity building will come from you.