Legal mechanisms for protecting agricultural land in the Kurdistan Region-Iraq

Abstract

Agricultural land is a main factor in agricultural production and investment, and in obtaining food security. From this standpoint, the legislator has focused on protecting it through a number of legal mechanisms presented by the laws operative in the Kurdistan Region. But despite that, its protection is somewhat neglected in the region. This is due to the ineffectiveness of some mechanisms and shortcomings in the proper implementation of others. This research aims to identify the legal mechanisms for protecting agricultural land in the region by analyzing the existing legal provisions in the region's laws. That's to diagnose weaknesses and shortcomings in these mechanisms and assess their effectiveness in deterring and preventing the misuse of agricultural land for production and investment purposes. Furthermore, the research seeks to determine the most suitable mechanism at present to protect this valuable resource for current and future generations, because the agricultural lands are part of the national wealth. At the end of the research, we focused on some of the necessary mechanisms for protecting agricultural lands that were not stipulated in the applicable laws, in order to confront the fragmentation of agricultural land ownership, and to limit urban expansion in the Kurdistan Region, especially in the main cities.