Kurdistan
Rudaw's Ranj Sangawi (center) discusses benefits of investing in the Kurdistan Region's natural herbs with panel of experts and officials on June 4, 2023. Photo: Rudaw/screengrab
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - There are around three thousand species of herbs naturally existing in the Kurdistan Region that are used to produce different types of medicine around the world but are yet to be utilized in the Region, the head of a relevant research center told Rudaw, calling on the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to industrialize and invest in the natural product.
Speaking to Rudaw’s Ranj Sangawi, Saman Ahmad, head of the Sulaimani-based Kurdistan Natural Herbs center, highlighted the significant medical uses of many of the herbs which he claims can only be found in the Kurdistan Region.
Including the 3,000 species found in the Kurdistan Region, Ahmad stated that there ARE between 16,000 to 17,000 species of natural herbs that can be found in the Kurdish areas of Iran, Syria, and Turkey “around 10 percent of which only grow in Kurdistan and no other place in the world.”
The researcher noted that they have discovered and obtained patents for two species found in the mountainous areas of the Kurdistan Region, one of which he claims can be used to reduce liver fat while the other is used in colon cancer treatment.
Begard Talabani, the Kurdistan Region’s agriculture and water resources minister, said that there are currently two factories in development in the Region that specialize in producing medicine from natural herbs, stressing the need for more factories in the near future in hopes of creating hundreds of job opportunities for the Region’s youth.
“In the past three years, the agriculture ministry has conducted 657 researches across the Kurdistan Region on natural herbs and their economic and scientific benefits,” she added.
Kawa Abdulkarim, head of the Kurdistan Agricultural Engineers Syndicate, believed that industrializing the herbs, especially in producing medicine, would be a challenging task and require great scientific support.
“It is true that there are a lot of natural herbs in the Kurdistan Region, but what is more important is conducting thorough scientific research on the herbs’ genetics, to determine whether or not the genes are strong enough to be invested in,” said Abdulkarim.
Halkawt Mohammed, executive member of the Kurdistan Farmers Union, believed that the researches would simply stay as theories and had no hopes of the findings being utilized any time soon.
“I am not optimistic about the government investing in the industrialization of natural herbs, because there is no vision or long-term agenda for that sector,” he said, adding “there is not even a strategy for the products that are available now and produced by the farmers.”
Kurdish farmers often decry lack of support from the KRG.
In 2021, farmers in Sulaimani’s Penjwen district on the border with Iran took to the streets to protest cheap, illegal imports that are leaving them unable to sell their produce and accused the government of failing to secure a market for them.
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