Strawberry and Vertical Farming, Baghdad
Wathiq Hussain Hameed & Husam Falih Hassan: Strawberry and Vertical Farming (Baghdad)
Wathiq Hussain Hameed is one of the participants who has utilized the knowledge he acquired to create a community of practice of agricultural engineers which then created a network of those interested in developing their own agribusiness. The group has communicated with government officials on the federal and governorate level exploring the possibilities of receiving support in terms of enabling policies for doing agribusiness. Wathiq has been highly committed throughout the programme, always actively participating at the online and onsite discussions.
Wathiq adopted vertical farming for his project. He has already started his pilot and has done good research on the strawberry market in terms of demand and prices fluctuation. He knows the strawberry farming and market very well. Wathiq is a candidate for knowledge and experience sharing.
Adopting vertical farming for strawberry production is very innovative, since strawberry production is so far only being practiced on small scale and research stations in Iraq. The pilot project focusses on small-scale strawberry vertical farming in times where strawberries are not produced in the market, using water-saving techniques. Wathiq received in-kind support to implement his pilot project.
The project was implemented on an area of 250 square meters, and the completion rate exceeded 80% due to some disturbing circumstances and the transition from one site to another to ensure the progress of the project and its success and facing all challenges. The first stage was to begin with 1,500 seedling plants, divided into about 600 seedlings to be planted by modern agriculture approach, and the remaining quantity to be planted using traditional agriculture. The possibility of placing no less than 80 seedlings per square meter and producing no less than 500-750 grams per plant, i.e., 40 kg per meter at the very least. The lowest selling price is 3000 dinars, about $2 per kg, and the highest price exceeds $15.
Hussam Falih Hassan’s project was similar to that of Wathiq yet required more preparation and special equipment to be implemented. He therefore decided to partner with Wathiq to develop the project.
Wathiq has a lesson learnt to tell:
“The program was very, very special. I learned a lot of details about the work and details of project development. How to add value to the product and study the economic feasibility and market.
More importantly, the ambition for expansion has increased. Insisting on trying, not being indifferent to obstacles, and finding alternatives for production.
I started with 1,500 seedlings, the purpose has been to understand more the production details and constraints. The ambition is to increase the number of seedlings to reach 100,000 with a production rate of no less than 50 tons annually and in an area not exceeding 1000 square meters.“
Wathiq Hussain Hameed and Husam Falih Hassana were participants at the Entrepreneurship program for start-up ans MSME Development.
The GIZ “Private Sector Development and Employment Promotion” (PSD) Project is supporting the development and piloting of business models in sectors with a strong potential for new job creation. As part of this workstream, the GIZ PSD project has launched the project “Entrepreneurship program for start-up and MSME Development, innovation and job creation in the agribusiness sector”, implemented by AMBERO Consulting GmbH. This project focused on supporting the development of promising business ideas in the downstream segments of agricultural value chains, particularly in the field of processing, marketing, and service provision.