Iraq – Water scarcity increases desertification of agricultural land

Location: Baghdad – Iraq

Language: Arabic

Duration: 00:05:38

Sound: natural

Source: A24

Restrictions: A24 subscribers

Dateline: 28/2/2022

Storyline

Several experts have issued warnings of the increase in the desertification of agricultural areas in Iraq if the parliament and the government did not address the seriousness of the matter, as Iraq annually loses 260,000 acres of agricultural land due to the lack of water releases, which prompted a large number of farmers and agricultural workers to emigrate. The Iraqi MP Adnan al-Juhaishi attributed the reasons for this decline in agricultural areas to the wrong policies adopted by ministries of agriculture, irrigation, trade and electricity for many years that led to the decrease in local agricultural yields, as well as the influx of imports into the country, which led to a shrinking of green spaces. Iraqi farmers have been fought in a way that made reduced their lands to a quarter of what they used to be, with the lack of water imports, the absence of electricity, and the absence of support from the Ministry of Agriculture. In some cases, the situation has forced farmers to commit suicide in the Zubair district. Some specialists offer solutions that will solve the problem, which lies in the establishment of agricultural economic partnerships with Turkey and the European Union.

Shotlist

(Soundbite) Adnan Burhan Al-Juhaishi, a deputy in the Iraqi Parliament:

“Our problem in Iraq is that we are heading towards desertification, and four main ministries are involved in this issue, namely the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Water Resources, the Ministry of Electricity and the Ministry of Trade. How are these four involved in this issue, you might ask. First, the agricultural plan was drawn up by the Ministry of Water Resources two years ago, the plan was to plant one hundred percent. And then it became eighty percent, last year the plan was reduced to fifty percent, and this year, the plan is twenty-five percent, meaning that if you have a hundred dunams, you will plant twenty-five dunams, and if you have a thousand dunams, you will plant two hundred and fifty dunams. Also, the Ministry of Agriculture does not give any support to the farmer. For winter crops, they give you five kilos per acre, does the five kilos cover two thousand five hundred square meters. So far, the Ministry of Commerce has not given us our cut from the crops we marketed last year, and now, we only have two months left for the next harvest.”

(Soundbite) Adnan Burhan Al-Juhaishi, a deputy in the Iraqi Parliament):

“The constitution guarantees the local product, where is that guarantee? The problem is that the farmer gets tired, especially the one who grows in the greenhouses and produces crops and transports them to the market and pays high financial costs because he buys materials from the black market until he produces and brings them to the market, but the borders would open and the imported products would affect his. Therefore, the Iraqi citizen has limited capabilities, so he is forced to go to the importer, and thus the great disaster falls on the farmer, because he returns his crop of fruits and vegetables, and it is destroyed within 24 hours because there are no places to store them, and there are people who committed suicide in the Zubair district.

(Soundbite) Dr. Safwan Qusay, an economist:

“Practically, there is a possibility to invest agricultural land through perpetuation and providing it with water resources. We note that the reduction of Iraq’s ability to release water during the summer season led to the abandonment of farmers to their lands when there is a water deficit of one billion cubic meters. This means that Iraq loses two hundred and sixty thousand acres of agricultural land. This means that workers would leave the agricultural lands; so we have to conclude agricultural economic partnerships with Turkey on the one hand and with the European Union on the other. There would be a three-dimensional investment in human resources and land from Iraq in exchange for water and technology from the European Union and Turkey.”

To Download Material