(27 Sep 2011)
AP Television
Baghdad, September 25, 2011
1. Wide of date-palm farming
2. Various of date trees
3. Exterior of the Agriculture Ministry''''s Date Palm Board
4. Sign reading: (Arabic) ''''''''The Agriculture Ministry''''s Date Palm Board station in Rashdiya district''''''''
5. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Kamil Mikhlif al-Dulaimi, head of the Agriculture Ministry''''s Date Palm Board:
"Bombing is one of the most important factors that caused huge damage to these orchards. The drought has also had a great impact on date farming despite the fact the river is near by. But water pumps are unable to operate because of outages of electricity. All these factors have negatively affected the orchards.''''''''
6. Mid of date trees
7. Mid exterior of the Iraqi State Company for manufacturing and marketing dates
8. Sign reading (Arabic) ''''''''The Iraqi State Company for manufacturing and marketing dates''''''''
9. Wide of women canning dates inside the company
10. Close of woman''''s hands canning date
11. Mid of woman putting dates in can
12. Mid of women removing centres using knives
13. Close of woman''''s hands removing centre
14. Mid of man placing dates into box
15. Close of women labelling cans filled with dates
16. Mid of cans being packed for delivery
17. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Mohammed Suleiman, Director of the Iraqi State Company for manufacturing and marketing dates:
''''''''Iraq was once the leading date-producing and exporting country. It was first in producing dates and it was the first in the number of date trees. It was also the leading date-exporting country.''''''''
18. Wide of factory production line floor
LEADIN:
Iraq was once the world leader in date production and export.
But years of war, bombing, drought and power shortages have left the industry struggling.
Now the Iraqi government is reinvesting in date farming to help the industry get back to its heydays of the 1950s.
STORYLINE
This date palm farm in Iraq is one of the lucky ones.
Many similar plots have been destroyed by years of war, sanctions and drought.
The date crop has always been important to the Iraqi economy.
During its heyday, in the 1950s and 1960s, Iraq was the world''''s No. 1 date producer and exporter and boasted 32 million date palms, more than any other nation in the world. At that time, Iraq produced about 1 million tons of dates annually, according to the head of the Agriculture Ministry''''s Date Palm Board.
But by 2003, there were only half that number of trees and production fell to 200,000 tons. The southern province of Basra was the worst hit by the slump, with only about a quarter of the 12 million date trees it once had.
Now the new government is taking its own action to revive Iraq''''s lost golden age of dates, supporting farmers with loans and launching nurseries.
It''''s not just an economic issue of getting a bigger slice of a date export market that nets big producers like Iran and Pakistan millions of dollars a year. Being renowned for dates is also a point of pride. Like all Muslims, Iraqis honour the date palm as a blessed plant.
It is mentioned many times in the holy book of Quran which, at one point, states Mary gave birth to Jesus under a palm tree and ate its fruit to ease the pain of childbirth. And the prophet Mohammed stressed the benefits of dates as a medicine for several human diseases.
A date is the traditional way for Muslims around the world to break their daily sunrise to sunset fast during the holy month of Ramadan.
But the important crop has suffered in Iraq.
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