It’s Not Funded Just by Oil and Looting. How the Islamic State Uses Agriculture.

Sep 27, 2016 | Eckart Woertz and Hadi Jaafar
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The Islamic State has repeatedly made headlines for commandeering and profiting from the region’s oil. Less attention has been paid to its use of another resource vital to the functioning of any would-be state: agriculture. 

In 2013 and 2014, the Islamic State overran large parts of the Gezirah region in Syria and Ninewa province in Iraq, two main breadbaskets. Farmers were displaced, supplies of subsidized inputs were disrupted and government-supported grain procurement broke down. However, the Islamic State didn’t just cut and burn. As it did with oil refineries, the Islamic State considered food-related infrastructure — such as silos — a strategic asset and sought to take it over intact. Agriculture represented a path to secure food provision and a source of recurrent tax income. As other sources of extractive revenue such as oil, ransom and confiscations have dwindled, and with foreign donations presumably lower than in 2013 to 2014, agriculture income has become increasingly important.