Local company Coffey International is coordinating the training, through its subsidiary SAGRIC and AusAID. Roger Olds, managing director of Coffey says that Australian agriculture has plenty in common with Iraq, and that the officials are keen to learn: "Horticulture, rural agriculture, dryland farming ...these are things where Australia, southern Australia, are particularly similar to Iraq, so our farming methods and so forth are very applicable to their country.
"Their task is really is to help Iraq rebuild its agricultural base; so it's really about implementation of new systems as they rebuild - this is not rebuilding it in an old-fashioned way, but rebuilding in a modern way."
