"Every effort should be made to enable farmers to return to their fields and start harvesting wheat and barley at the beginning of May," said Laurent Thomas, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation's chief of emergency programmes.

Farmers needed the spare parts and fuel for combine harvesters and tractors, FAO said.

"In addition, urgent support is needed to revive cereal marketing and distribution facilities," said Thomas.

He said the outlook for the spring harvest had been jeopardized by the war, despite earlier estimates of a cereal harvest of around 1.7 million tonnes, similar to last year's.

"This would cover nearly 30 percent of Iraq's overall cereal requirements for the period July 2003-June 2004," Thomas said.

"A successful harvest would definitely improve access to food and could help stimulate the rural economy."

"Notwithstanding the potentially beneficial crop harvest this spring, the bulk of Iraq's cereal requirement will still have to be met through imports, including substantial amounts of food aid," Thomas said.

The Rome-based agency recently launched an 86 million dollar emergency appeal for Iraq to cover assistance to agriculture.

SPACE.WIRE