Tribal leaders and U.S. soldiers enjoy a bountiful meal provided at the home of the host sheik on Saturday after a planning meeting about reviving the poultry industry in an area south of Baghdad. (Suzanne Cronn-Herald/Review)
Posted on 12/30/2007 7:03:29 AM PST by mdittmar
KARGULI VILLAGE, Iraq — To build a poultry-based association, American business ideas and Iraqi cultural ways will have to merge.
This is especially true in the fertile Euphrates Valley, where agriculture was a fairly profitable business just a few years ago.
As part of America’s armed forces of reaching out to civilian communities in an effort to reduce the hold al-Qaida in Iraq and other insurgents have on the population, small units are seeking ways to improve the lives of Iraqis in their areas of responsibility.
For the Rakkasans of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 187th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) from Fort Campbell, Ky., a target of opportunity is chicken farming.
Chickens may be the new bird of peace in what was called the “Triangle of Death.” Before the U.S. attack on Iraq in 2003 and the 2004 bird flu scare, poultry was an economic mainstay in the predominate Sunni area south of Baghdad.
Company commander Capt. Ryan Barnett said that in late November “one of the (local) sheiks expressed an interest in reopening the poultry industry.”
It sounded like a good idea to the captain — a community-based project in the slightly more than 30 square miles that his company has responsibility.
There were a number of chicken farmers before the war, and the idea seemed like it could be done to help find jobs for hundreds of unemployed Iraqis in Barnett’s area. Each commander is supposed to come up with projects to help people in their area.
The company’s region once had at least 100 chicken coops where the birds were raised. The overall area had a couple hundred more.
Barnett contacted an Army veterinarian, Maj. Jessica McCoy, who is working with the U.S. Department of State on proposals to return economic well-being to areas in this war-torn nation.
“It used to be the biggest poultry-producing area in Baghdad province,” she said.
According to her research, at one time 297 chicken coops existed in Shakriyah County and nearby counties. They were mainly what would be called mom-and-pop operations in the United States.
On Saturday, a number of sheiks held their first meeting in Karguli Village, a small hamlet that has seen better times, although some houses are still in good condition.
The trip to the meeting, hosted by one of the sheiks at his home, took the convoy of up-armored Humvees down narrow roads and passed numerous checkpoints manned by Iraqi Army, Iraqi police and Concerned Local Citizens, the latter who turned their weapons on al-Qaida in Iraq and other insurgents and now have been hired by the United Sates as additional guards.
Damage from the war was ever present as the vehicles drove along narrow, potholed roads through a number of small farm areas, where people worked their fields as cattle and sheep grazed nearby, and through villages and one substantial town.
Many homes were nothing more than hovels, while others were well kept.
Most had wash drying on lines, mainly on the roofs.
Children waved.
Adults looked on, some occasionally raising their hands, but not quite waving.
As the sheiks gathered, traditional handshakes were exchanged, as well as some kissing on the cheeks.
The greetings were not limited to fellow Iraqis. Americans also were welcomed, except for the cheek kissing.
Some of the sheiks shook Herald/Review photographer Suzanne Cronn’s hand. Others allowed her to touch their sleeve. And some touched their hearts with their right hands, as she did the same thing.
Sheik Abudalla Mohammed Husson spoke about the importance of producing an association, but warned it cannot be solely based on U.S. business practices.
There must be consideration for Iraqi sensibilities, he said.
After the meeting, he said he once had a successful chicken-raising operation, which is defunct because of the American actions in late 2005.
His coops were destroyed and some of his workers were detained when U.S. forces were looking for two American soldiers who had been kidnapped. Neither soldier has been found.
“I used to have four chicken coops. Four of my workers are still detained,” the sheik said.
His chicken-raising operation ended.
“Everything is dead. I lost 50,000 in U.S. dollars,” he said.
During the long discussion, only broken for the call to prayers, the sheik said the Iraqi government must put money into the program for the association to work.
It’s a viewpoint many of the other tribal leaders agreed was important.
McCoy said a way to market Iraqi-grown chickens must be found to build that part of the nation’s economy.
Most of the chickens currently consumed by Iraqis are frozen ones from Brazil, the major said before the meeting began.
Iraqis also must enter the world of modern business practices, though a number of industries in Iraq now lack an up-to-date business sense, McCoy said.
“Iraq does not have a market economy,” she said.
Paul Heidloff, who works for a contractor as part of the American Iraq Local Governance Program, agreed.
An expert on poultry issues, he looked around and said, “I know a lot of people in this room can grow very good chickens. But there has never been a market on chickens in this country.”
Speaking through a translator, although Heidloff can speak some of the local language, he said it must be recognized that “Brazilian frozen chickens are 97 percent of this market.”
The Iraqi chicken producers have to form an association because the people prefer fresh chickens, he said.
The problem is that frozen chicken costs about 3,500 Iraqi dinars for a kilo, which is 2.2 pounds, while fresh chickens are double that cost, Heidloff said. The difference is about $2.50 for frozen versus $5 for fresh.
By re-establishing the chicken industry, Iraqis will buy the product because it will be fresh and preparing the meat will be done under halal conditions, the Muslim religious requirements for food, he said.
“People in Iraq will buy the chickens,” Heidloff said.
Saying he already is in contact with people who will financially support the establishment of the Mahmoudiya Poultry Association by doing such things as providing grants, Heidloff said the program must look beyond just raising chickens, as it needs to include feeding, slaughtering, processing and transporting.
Before the war, Iraqis ate 22 pounds of chicken a year. Now, Heidloff said, it is 2.2 pounds per year.
Heidloff recognized the sheiks’ concern about a lack of Iraqi government involvement. As they spoke, he wrote down their concerns to check into them later.
For some of the former chicken farmers, government assistance is a necessary crutch until the industry is back on its feet.
After the meeting and during lunch provided by the host sheik, Heidloff said that under the regime of the late Saddam Hussein, the government provided the feed, the chicks and took 60 percent of the raised chickens, leaving the farmers 40 percent of which he said he suspects were the poorer quality bird.
The expert also said the high price of fuel of operations, especially propane, is a concern.
The sheiks said gas is hard to obtain and the black market prices have risen too high, making parts of the chicken-raising process too expensive.
And the power-producing infrastructure is not fully operating.
The group came to a consensus to find a way to have the yet-completed association obtain a government license to purchase propane at government costs.
The meeting was like a town hall event in the United States, with pros and cons discussed in the open. While some agreements were made, there are still problems that need to be fixed.
For Charlie Company’s top noncommissioned officer, 1st Sgt. Timothy Marble, who is serving his third deployment in Iraq, if the chicken farming plan works, he’s for it.
“I would rather go a whole year without getting shot at, than being shot at every day,” he said.
In a two-day period in 2006, a Humvee he was in was hit by an improvised explosive device. Except for a soldier who suffered minor shrapnel wounds, no one else was hurt, he said.
Iraq is “way quieter” right now, something Marble said he likes.
As the convoy drove back to Patrol Base Gator Swamp, the company’s base, Marble pointed out areas where he engaged in firefights during the march from Kuwait to Mosul in 2003.
During the short trip down war’s memory lane, the convoy had to stop for a while as an explosive ordnance disposal unit detonated a 130 mm shell found by an Iraqi.
Yes, chicken farming would be much better than planting a dangerous crop of destructive devices in Iraqi soil.
FR WAR NEWS!
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