Dr. Malad Abdul Muttalib Hamed

Department of General Sciences

College of Basic Education / Haditha- University of Anbar

 Oil crops are one of the important and indispensable crops in any country. It is known that oils and fats are one of the important nutrients that a person needs in his diet. Rather, they are the richest food in energy, as they give calories when burned in the body twice as much as carbohydrates or Proteins, as they usually contain some soluble vitamins such as vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E and vitamin K. Vegetable oils in general are an important source of human food, and the unsuitable ones are used in the manufacture of dyes and soap and in other industries, and the gain resulting from oil extraction operations is used. As fodder for animals, and among the most important of those crops that are grown in Iraq (soybean, sesame, sunflower, field pistachio, in addition to olive trees) and beside these crops, there are other dual-purpose crops that are mainly grown to be oils in the second place, such as cotton, flax and corn.

According to reports, in 2022 Iraq consumed approximately (840 thousand tons) of cooking oils and (40 thousand tons) of olive oil. Today, Iraq produces 20% of its needs from vegetable oils and 25% of its needs from olive oil. In other words, it imports 80% of the oil consumption in Iraq, which is distributed between sunflower oils, corn oil and palm oil imported by 100%.

Despite our great needs for vegetable oils, our local production of it is only a small percentage.

The decrease in the local production of vegetable oils is due to:

1. The lack of cultivated areas of oil crops compared to the needs of local consumption.

2. The lack of government support for these crops represented by the provision of good varieties, fertilizers and pesticides.

3. Low production of some items

4. Lack of disease-resistant varieties

5. The lack of factories to extract oils from the seeds of some oil crops.

6. Marketing problems are among the most prominent obstacles that limit the expansion of crop cultivation.

So the farmer tends to grow other crops away from oil crops.

Therefore, solutions to these problems must be developed, including the following:

1.     Increasing the cultivated areas of these crops by educating farmers about the importance of these crops and providing them with material and moral support.

2.     Providing varieties of those crops with high productivity and resistance to diseases and insects

3.      Providing receiving and marketing centers for these crops.

4.      Establishing factories for oil crops in Iraq.