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Food security in Iraq: results from quantitative and qualitative surveys

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  • Eckart Woertz

    (CIDOB (Barcelona Centre for International Affairs)
    Kuwait Chair, Sciences Po)

Abstract

Iraq’s food security has been profoundly affected by its oil-based economy, over three decades of conflict and its politics that have been shaped by authoritarian rentierism. The article outlines the political economy of food security in Iraq and how it has been shaped historically. It identifies various conditioning factors such as oil, conflict, environment, agricultural development strategies and institutional setups, such as the Public Distribution System (PDS), the world’s largest public food program. It then disentangles these factors in an analysis of data from Gallup, Iraq Body Count and various international organizations to give an appreciation of the Iraqi food security situation since the end of the Saddam regime. Finally, it takes a look at views of Iraqi experts on current food security issues in Iraq, using the results of an online survey that was conducted from May–October 2015 among 152 Iraqi experts from academia, ministries and NGOs. Iraqis overwhelmingly identify political instability and bad governance as major challenges to food security; it is unlikely that mere technocratic policy prescriptions can improve food security in the absence of political stability and improved governance.

Suggested Citation

  • Eckart Woertz, 2017. "Food security in Iraq: results from quantitative and qualitative surveys," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 9(3), pages 511-522, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ssefpa:v:9:y:2017:i:3:d:10.1007_s12571-017-0666-2
    DOI: 10.1007/s12571-017-0666-2
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Ore Koren & Benjamin E. Bagozzi, 2016. "From global to local, food insecurity is associated with contemporary armed conflicts," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 8(5), pages 999-1010, October.
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    6. Jaafar, Hadi H. & Woertz, Eckart, 2016. "Agriculture as a funding source of ISIS: A GIS and remote sensing analysis," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 14-25.
    7. Al-Haboby, Azhr & Breisinger, Clemens & Debowicz, Darío & El-Hakim, Abdul Hussein & Ferguson, Jenna & van Rheenen, Teunis & Telleria, Roberto, 2014. "Agriculture for development in Iraq?: Estimating the impacts of achieving the agricultural targets of the national development plan 2013–2017 on economic growth, incomes, and gender equality:," IFPRI discussion papers 1349, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
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    Cited by:

    1. Ahmed Raza Cheema & Adeel Saleem & Hubert Visas & Jabbar Ul-Haq, 2022. "Role of Education, Age, and Family Size on Food Insecurity in Pakistan: A Quantile Regression Analysis," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 34(5), pages 2576-2597, October.
    2. Ziv Bar-Nahum & Israel Finkelshtain & Rico Ihle & Ofir D. Rubin, 2020. "Effects of violent political conflict on the supply, demand and fragmentation of fresh food markets," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 12(3), pages 503-515, June.

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