Diyala province expects over 200K tons from wheat harvest
Shafaq News- Diyala
Wheat harvesting has begun across Iraq’s Diyala province, where marketed production is expected to exceed 210,000 tons, with recent rainfall helping improve yields, local agricultural authorities announced on Monday.
Mohammed Al-Mandalawi, spokesperson for the Diyala Agriculture Directorate, told Shafaq News that more than 305,000 dunams (30,500 hectares) have been cultivated for marketing, including between 58,000 and 59,000 dunams within the official agricultural plan, while nearly 246,000 dunams were planted outside the plan through rain-fed farming.
Diyala’s wheat season, Al-Mandalawi noted, typically starts later than in southern Iraq because of geographic and climatic conditions, adding that grain silos and storage facilities are preparing to receive crops ahead of the official launch of marketing operations on May 20.
Earlier this month, wheat harvest season began in Karbala, Najaf, and Basra. In its 2025 annual report, the International Grains Council forecast Iraq’s 2026 wheat crop at 5 million tons, down from 6.3 million the previous year, while imports are expected to rise to 2.1 million tons from 1.5 million in 2025.
