'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎290v] (583/862)

448 IRRIGATION, AGRICULTURE, AND MINOR INDUSTRY
drawn by flood or by lifting apparatus from rivers and canals. 1
The Rainfall Zone corresponds roughly to upper Mesopotamia and
Kurdistan, the Irrigation Zone to lower Mesopotamia, though rain-
fed cultivation extends southward in good seasons into the northern
fringe of the Irrigation Zone; likewise in the Rainfall Zone there is
local irrigation by lift or flood along some rivers. There is a general
division of winter and summer crops. Winter crops {saiji) are sown
in the autumn and fed by the winter rains or by light irrigation in
the Irrigation Zone, and harvested in spring. Summer crops {shitwi)
are sown in spring in the Irrigation Zone and near the watercourses
of the Rainfall Zone, fed by lift or canal or flood irrigation and
harvested in summer or autumn. The principal crops, considered
in detail below, are barley, wheat, dates, and rice, and in special areas
cotton and tobacco (Table II, p. 476). Subsidiary crops include
millet, sesame, lentils and beans. In certain areas fresh vegetables
and varied fruits including grapes are grown. One of the principal
needs of Iraq is the establishment of profitable alternative winter
crops to replace cereals, which tend to be over produced. The two
most valuable exports are cereals and dates, but the former is at the
mercy of world markets, while the latter is far less variable.
The general aspect of the country shows that in the Assyrian
plains, the main granary of Iraq, winter cereals—barley and wheat—
predominate, and summer crops like millet, maize, and sesame are
grown only where local irrigation is possible from watercourses. In
central Iraq—the Falluja-Baghdad-Diyala canal zone—cereals such
as wheat and barley predominate as winter crops, while summer crops
include cotton and the just-mentioned subsidiary crops and market
gardening in the neighbourhood of Baghdad. From this zone south
ward to the Hammar lake barley and rice are the predominant crops,
while date palms become more numerous southward to the Shatt
al Arab, where all the riverain lands are covered with palm-groves.
In the mountains of Kurdistan the crops are far more varied than
elsewhere and cultivation is generally on a small scale, but the most
valuable products are tobacco and grapes (photo. 173).
Nearly everywhere cultivation is in the hands of a peculiar class
of share-cropping small-holders who have no security of tenure and
whose labours are supervised in the interest of the landowners by a
set of agents known as sarkal (p. 445). Agriculture remains primitive
1 The usually accepted figures, dating back to 1930, are 10 million acres in the
Rainfall Zone, 12 millions in the Irrigation Zone. Recently the latter has been
assessed at 20 millions, but water could hardly be provided for such an area.