Sharazur farmers harvest their famous tomato crops

Variety 10:21 AM - 2021-06-29

Photo Credit: Shad Ibrahim

With the arrival of the summer, the season of heat, tomato harvest has begun in the Sharazur district of Sulaymaniyah.

 

Farmers visit their lands during the early hours of the morning to collect tomatoes, cucumbers, and watermelons until 9 am then they take their products to sell at markets.

 

Farmers say that this year's lack of rain has affected their crops, although they have produced crops, not being able to sell their products in the market has created problems for them.

 

Kurdistan Region had witnessed a relatively dry winter this year which made this year's farmers' crops not as good as the previous years.

 

Salar Ahmed, 49, says he has worked as a farmer in the Sharazur plain since childhood, and he told PUKmedia that now that summer and temperatures are high, some of the summer crops have ripened, including tomatoes in large quantities, watermelons, cucumbers, and other products.

 

He said that this year's low rainfall in the area has had a great impact on the products and the time to collect crops, but the products are still good.

 

"Our problem as farmers is that we are unable to sell our products at the market, they don't make much profit for us," Ahmed said.

 

Salar has made a special request to the Kurdistan Region's Agriculture Ministry to prevent the import of daily products such as tomatoes, cucumbers, and other products, as the import has caused great damage to us farmers.

 

500 tonnes of tomatoes are produced in the Sharazur plain yearly, as well as more than 200 tonnes of other products which are taken to the fruits and vegetable markets of Sulaymaniyah, Halabja, and other parts of the Kurdistan Region.

 

 

 

Reported by Jamal Sargati

PUKmedia