Distributing plastic houses in Nassiriya resumed

THI-QAR / IraqiNews.com: The distribution of a new batch of plastic houses on farmers resumed on Friday in Thi-Qar province as a new experiment to test the covered agriculture system, a senior agricultural official said. “The agriculture department started today a campaign to distribute 55 plastic houses on vegetable farmers in Thi-Qar as a new experiment of this kind of agriculture,” Saad Walied told IraqiNews.com. “The project aims to spread this kind of agriculture in the province,” he added. “This is the second stage of the project as the first stage witnessed the distribution of 20 plastic houses,” he noted. Thi-Qar, 380 km south of Baghdad, has an area of 12,900 square kilometers (4,980.7 sq mi). In 2003 the estimated population of the governorate was 1,454,200 people. Thi-Qar was the second Iraqi province where security responsibilities were transferred from the Multi-National Force (MNF) to the Iraqis. The province’s capital is the city of al-Nassiriya. It also includes the ancient Sumerian ruins of Ur, Eridu, Lagash and Ngirsu. Before 1976 the province was known as al-Muntafiq. SH (P) 1