“Daesh killed my dreams and my family's plan -- ‘FAO-EU’ revived them!”

‘’Everyone in Iraq loves Al-Qimar, Iraq’s signature soft cheese cream and other local traditional dairy products, like butter, ghee (dohn Horr), laban, guishwa and varieties of white cheeses.

Yet few realize that the dairy farmers who produce the milk and such products are mainly rural women, considered the most vulnerable segment in Iraqi society and who received little attention in the past. In addition, female dairy producers in Nineveh Governorate in Iraq still suffer from the physical and moral impacts of conflict.

Within the framework of post-crisis development efforts for rebuilding agricultural livelihoods, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is empowering rural women and reviving hope to returnees in Iraq through an EU-funded project with targeted interventions to improve value chains and revitalize Iraq’s high-value crop/livestock systems and agri-food based micro-industries.

Women dairy producers in the Governorate of Nineveh, the “breadbasket” of Iraq, struggle to recover from the conflict. “They gave us hours to leave," said Dhuhaa Najm Shith, one of the many women dairy producers forced to leave their homes, farms and dreams due to the conflict caused by ISIL in Iraq between 2014 and 2017.

The Nineveh Governorate produces most of the country’s grain, including 20-30% of Iraq’s wheat, and is the major reservoir of livestock in Iraq, mainly of Awassi sheep production for dairy as well as lamb production. The ISIL occupation of Mosul and large swathes of Nineveh territory between 2014 and 2017 displaced over one million people, mainly from rural areas, and severely damaged the agriculture sector. Farmers, especially in rural areas, are still struggling to recover after returning home to find infrastructure destroyed, assets looted and livestock stolen, missing or slaughtered.

"They came back and threatened us with weapons if we didn't go out. My husband's justifications did not help them, and after their insistence, we went out of the house, heading me, my children, and my husband's parents to (his brother's) house, which is not far from our home, and my husband stayed near the buffalo shed watching what happened. Then they broke the barn door to enter a large cannon, and set it up near the forage shed,” recalls Dhuhaa Najm Shith in a severe tone of sadness and tears nearly bursting from her eyes.

Dhuhaa Najm Shith and her family, are just one of many rural households relying on milk production as their main source of income and must now rebuild all that they have lost due to the conflict. She smiles as she describes how life was before, “I used to raise buffaloes: preparing feed for them, in a place next to the barn, and I watered them with water through a large pool of water along the left side of the barn, and early in the morning before sunrise, I milk those buffaloes and put the milk in prepared containers for that, and Al-Qimar (Iraqi thick buttercream)  was extracted from that milk to sell in the city markets, and we sell some of it as raw milk.” My life…between housework and raising buffaloes in the barn, it had a taste of sweetness.”

Milk production, mainly from Awassi sheep and buffalo, is one of the main rural activities in the area. Women play a key role in processing home-traditional dairy products, like butter, ghee (dohn Horr), laban, Al-Qimar (Iraqi cream), guishwa and varieties of white cheeses. There is a high demand for traditional dairy products made from local fresh milk and the processing and marketing of traditional dairy products is often the main source of income for vulnerable dairy producers, particularly rural women.

The chance to achieve their hopes and dreams is something that rural women are often denied. Despite representing more than 25% of the world's population, rural women still face persistent structural barriers that exclude them from decision-making processes at all levels, impeding their economic security and personal agency.

In rural Iraq, despite their considerable contribution, the role of women is often undervalued or, worse, unseen. In most cases, women are being left out and left behind, compared to men, due to prevailing customs and traditions that result in a considered lower in status compared to men in the sector due to prevailing customs and traditions. Not only is illiteracy very common among women, but women also lack access to new interventions and technology.

To overcome these challenges, FAO and the EU working with rural dairy producers to unlock the opportunities that the livestock and traditional home- processing dairy products represent to both empower women and restore livelihoods, while revitalizing dairy production in the agri-food sector.

When asked about her experience working with FAO and Iraq’s Ministry of Agriculture, Dhuhaa Najam Shith says, “The hope came that revived the dream that had haunted us for many years, hope came one morning knocking on our door. These people learned about our story. They learned about what happened to us in those old days, so they decided to help us, and to revive our dream by supporting the buffaloes with green fodder grown on land near the city of Mosul.  Because buffaloes eat green fodder, more milk is produced. The project is supporting us with needed dairy equipment to help us convert all milk into a product Al-Qimar and yoghurt instead of selling raw milk. They surprised us by achieving my dream by starting rehabilitation of our modest kitchen into a dairy production plant inside my house, which will shorten the time, and the production will be healthier and more productive than before.”

Dhuhaa is just one of 2000 women who will benefit from interventions to support improved traditional processed dairy / Agro-Food products with stainless steel dairy equipment for milk handling, storage, processing and marketing. Other activities include the rehabilitation of 35 small/medium milk collection, processing and marketing units. Capacity building and technical assistance will go side-by-side with the provision of appropriate inputs and supplies. The potential for meaningful results is not only in the improved production of traditional dairy but also in creating job opportunities at the village level and providing better quality products to consumers

At the conclusion of the conversation, Dhuhaa Najm Shith told us that ISIL, “stole our dreams by seizing the house and the barn, while FAO-EU and Nineveh MoA extension staff have revived our dreams, which has become a tangible reality that will correct the march of reality for the march of livestock in our cities in particular, and Iraq in general.”

Today, on International Women's Day, we must take the opportunity to bring awareness to the profound contributions rural women make to society, as well as the ways in which they are underrepresented and hindered.