Free Republic

WASHINGTON, April 23, 2008 – U.S. led economic-development programs for Iraq’s Wasit province are based largely on providing local farmers with the tools and knowledge needed to build profitable and sustainable agribusinesses, an official said in a teleconference with online journalists and “bloggers” yesterday. Wasit’s provincial council estimates that agricultural production accounts for about 30 percent of the province’s economy, and the major industry there is agricultural processing, said Mark Wilt, the U.S. Agency for International Development economic representative for the Wasit provincial reconstruction team. Iraq’s agricultural provinces suffered when farmers lost heavy subsidies they received under Saddam Hussein’s regime,...

Residents unload fertilizer bags, April 10, at the Zambraniyah community center. Soldiers of Company B, 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, delivered 180 bags of fertilizer to the center. DoD photo. FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU — Zambraniyah farmers got much-needed assistance for their crops recently with a delivery from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division. “Today we conducted a fertilizer distro for the farmers of Zambraniyah and I think this is something that definitely will continue helping to establish the foundation for economic growth in our sector,” said Capt. Cesar Santiago, a...

Damaging rifts within the rural lobby threaten to overshadow today's countryside march, which has been billed as the biggest civil liberties protest ever seen in Britain. On the eve of the march, which is forecast to draw more than 300,000 protesters into London, a coalition of high-profile countryside groups claimed the event had been hijacked by the pro-hunting fraternity. Conservation groups, rural poverty organisations and countryside workers - representing almost 1.4 million members, including the Council for the Protection of Rural England and the National Federation of Women's Institutes - voiced their frustration. Their concerns were backed by the...