Department of Agribusiness and Rural Development (ARD):
The Department of ARD focuses on research and teaching in the fields of agribusiness, agricultural economics, food production, rural communities, natural resources, environment, agricultural extension, and rural development.
The Department of ARD was established in 2012 through the integration of the Department of Agricultural Extension. The study of Agribusiness and Rural Development in Kurdistan as a new approach is becoming necessary beside agricultural extension and economics, as a result of the liberalization of international agricultural trade and the beginning of Kurdistan region’s self-governing.
ARD will open a wide range of interests and activities that can be anticipated and will add new varieties of participation in the both fields of research and teaching, which are essential for the investigation of modern agribusiness and socio-economic problems dealing with fields of food production, natural resources, environment, social, and balanced rural and urban development. ARD is employed all effort to provide the best services to the people of Kurdistan region/Iraq since its establishment. ARD’s mission is to provide objective economic analysis, the best management and educational extensions to support knowledgeable decision making in the field of resource allocation, business management, and public policy for the people of Kurdistan Region/Iraq.
Our faculty and teaching staffs are committed to teaching and working closely with our students to provide high-quality education programs for undergraduate and graduate students. Furthermore, ARD research staffs carry on research on a wide variety of applied topics, and studies that determine the role of agriculture in the economy of Kurdistan, the impacts of changes in international agricultural trade policies, substitute policies to stabilize farm household incomes, and investments to promote economic development in the rural areas of Kurdistan region…In this department undergraduate students will receive a bachelor’s degree in Agribusiness and Rural Development. As well as, the department offers programs in agribusiness, agricultural economics and rural development for graduate students.
All of faculty and staff in ARD strive to make student life on campus at ARD department as satisfying, rewarding and delighted as possible. The main goal is to provide students with a breadth of knowledge in both the social and natural sciences to make programs of ARD worthy, progressive, and forward-thinking which further professional training can be based to prepare responsible and independent students for their future careers in private and public sectors of agriculture and rural development. A student with this major is expected to find job in agribusiness firms or farms, rural economic development organizations, government agencies dealing with agriculture or natural resource management.
