"العراق والخليج الفارسي" [و‎‎٢‎٩‎٠] (٨٦٢/٥٨٢)

IRRIGATION, AGRICULTURE, AND MINOR INDUSTRY 447
produce. The landowner generally receives between 30 and 40 per
cent., but may receive as little as one-sixth if he does not pay for the
seed, or one-tenth in tribal areas if the land, though registered in
the name of the shaikh, is generally regarded as the property of the
tribesmen. It would seem to be more common for the sarkal to be
paid out of the landowner’s share than out of the fellah’s share or out
of* both. Generally the landowner pays half of his own share to the
sarkal, who seldom receives more than one-fifth. A characteristic
reckoning for lands watered by rain is that the Government receives
20 per cent., the landowner 20 per cent., the sarkal 10 per cent., and
the fellah 50 per cent. The reductions made by the Government
in its various charges generally seem to be appropriated by the land-
owner and sarkal at the expense of the fellah. Thus the change from
a tithe on gross produce to a tax on sales works unfairly for the
fellah in that his traditional share, formerly tax free, has not been
increased, whereas he now pays tax on that part of it which he sells.
Aqr. The ‘rights of Aqr’ may be mentioned here, because though
they are a form of property-right in land they are in effect a charge
upon the land. They are held by former owners or holders of land
who were dispossessed of their property for neglect of cultivation before
1870, but allowed to retain a share of its produce in perpetuity, usually
between 2 and 5 per cent, of the gross returns. Landholders now
have the power to acquire Aqr rights from their owners at fixed rates
and thus extinguish the charge, which proves burdensome when such
lands are brought under intensive cultivation.
Agriculture
General Conditions
Despite the existence of large oilfields, the bulk of the national
wealth and the livelihood of nearly every individual Iraqi is derived
directly or indirectly from agriculture, stock raising, and the owner
ship of land. Yet the cultivated area is not large, only about one-fifth
of the 175,000 square miles of Iraq are reckoned cultivable, and of
this only a small proportion is cropped in any one year for economic
and technical reasons. Formerly this proportion was reckoned
between one-fifth and one-tenth, but since about 1935 between
5 and 6 million acres are cropped annually out of 22,000,000 acres.
There are two major divisions of the cultivated area, each of roughly
equal size: the Rainfall Zone, in which crops depend upon rain for
water, and the Irrigation Zone in which they depend upon water