CSU contributes seed to Iraq to bolster wheat, barley crops

FORT COLLINS – The future of a nation can be found in one small seed.
It was this idea that started the grassroots effort to provide Iraqi farmers with updated wheat and barley seed to replenish what has been depleted by overplanting.
According to the U.S. Department of Defense, the seed will be used in the Ninevah Province, considered to be the country’s wheat belt.
A statement from the Defense Department says that over the past 10 years this region has not been able to keep up with Iraq’s wheat demand. During the Saddam Hussein regime, farmers were expected to continuously produce wheat, never leaving their fields fallow. This tactic degraded the soil, leaving few nutrients for the next year’s crop, increasing the chances for crop disease and fungus and eventually resulting in fewer yields.
U.S. soldiers on the ground in Iraq saw the need for education and new seeds to encourage genetic diversity. Consequently, Lt. Col. John Maxwell, food and agriculture team leader for the 416th Civil Affairs Battalion, contacted officials at Texas A&M University to see if they could help.
Gaylon Morgan, small grain specialist with the Texas Cooperative Extension Service received the call and put the wheels into motion to gather the most appropriate wheat and barley seeds for Iraq’s climate.
He called on Colorado State University, Kansas State University and the World Wide Wheat Co. in Arizona for help.
“We wanted several varieties of seed from several locations to increase diversity,” Morgan said.
One problem he found involved the plant protection act, which protects against the spread of noxious pests or weeds into or out of the United States. As a result, Morgan had to find unprotected varieties that were adaptable to the Iraqi climate.
He worked with the International Office of Agriculture Program at Texas A&M and called the Agronomy Foundation, a nationwide organization of seed producers.
He called the Colorado Foundation Seed Foundation at Colorado State University and the organization agreed to contribute to the project.
“So far at this point we have only donated enough seed to help with research trials to find out what will survive,´ said Aaron Brown, manager of the Agronomy Seed Foundation. “I believe we sent them some Prairie Red and some Akron Wheat seed and some Otis Barley.”
Texas A&M’s Morgan also contacted Kirk Kroloff, executive manager at the World Wide Wheat Co., to see if they would donate to the cause.
“We were delighted to help – it felt like a patriotic thing to do,” Kroloff said. “We gave 1,000 pounds of wheat – good wheat.”
Kroloff said the new seed was necessary for improving the quality of wheat and the yields the fields could produce.
“There have been major improvements in the quality of seed,” he said. “Ultimately this leads to better breads and pastas. We have improved the quality of food and the yield produced.”
While 1,000 pounds of wheat sounds like a lot to the average person, it is really only enough to plant approximately 16 acres, enough for a good test patch. The winter wheat was sent to Iraq in late September and is expected to be in the ground in time for the harvest.
Morgan said he enjoyed the experience and hopes the project will positively impact the people of Iraq.
“This was a new thing for me and as a result I met a lot of new people,” he said. “We received a lot of support thanks in part to World Wide Wheat and CSU.”
Lt. Col. Maxwell said once the seeds arrive in Iraq, multi-national forces will give them to the Ninevah Directorate of Agriculture, who will distribute them to area farmers. The Iraqis will plant the seed variants in test plots to see which species show the most potential. The Ninevah Directorate will then reproduce the most successful seeds.
“This project will really have slight impact in the next year’s wheat production,” Maxwell said. “We will really see the impact in about two years after the farmers have had a chance to see which seeds fare the best. With proper management, these wheat variants will definitely make a difference for the better for Iraq’s wheat production.”

Kim Lock is the agriculture reporter for The Northern Colorado Business Report. To suggest column ideas contact her at (970) 221-5400 ext. 222 or at klock@ncbr.com.

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