Khalifan irrigation project: a pool constructed by the programme. The programme is aiming to improve water supply to livestock and to orchards in areas that have dried up because of drought. Stationary and mobile pools were constructed to provide irrigation water. - - FAO Activities under Security Council Resolution 986 in Iraq (Oil for Food Programme). In 1995, concerned about the suffering of the civilian population as a result of the continuing sanctions that were imposed in 1990 after the war, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 986 with an "Oil for Food programme", as a temporary measure, authorizing the sale of Iraqi petroleum products to finance the purchase of humanitarian supplies.

Since the introduction in Iraq of Resolution 986, "Oil for Food Programme ", the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has taken full responsibility for the implementation of the agricultural part of the programme in three northern governorates of Iraq (Dohuk, Erbil and Suleimaniyah) and has observed its implementation by the government in the centre and south of the country.

FAO's role in northern Iraq is to rehabilitate and revive the agricultural sector, as well as to supply basic agricultural inputs.

The objectives of the programme are to: address major agricultural production and productivity constraints with special focus on small farmers; improve production and productivity; lower the cost of domestic food production through the distribution of agricultural inputs; undertake measures to ensure the availability of irrigation water; upgrade agricultural practices and reactivate agricultural institutions by involving them in the programme.

Locally generated funds from the sale of certain inputs to farmers, are the responsibility of FAO as well as the disbursement of these funds. The funds cover the cost of rehabilitation of irrigation infrastructure, reforestation activities and of orchard seedling nurseries.