| Agriculture, an important part of the Iraqi economy, became even more essential after the United Nations (UN) imposed trade sanctions on the country in 1990, following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. Iraqi farmers grow grains, dates, grapes, figs, and other crops, while nomadic and seminomadic Iraqi herders raise livestock. Yet before the UN trade embargo, Iraq had imported approximately 70 percent of its food. This photograph shows an Iraqi farmer bagging grain. |