Iraq to reduce winter crops area by half: ministry

Iraq will drastically reduce its winter crops this year because of a water crisis, the agriculture ministry announced on Sunday.

The government approved an agricultural plan to reduce this year’s winter crops in “irrigated areas” by 50 percent because of “water scarcity and low water revenues,” the ministry said in a statement.

Iraq is the fifth-most vulnerable nation in the world to the effects of climate change, including water and food insecurity. Low rainfall levels and high temperatures caused by climate change are depleting water supplies across the country. Much of Iraq’s agricultural lands depend on irrigation, but dams and reservoirs were at record-low levels this summer.

The ministry decision does not include Diyala province, which is vulnerable to water shortages after Iran built dams on tributaries to the Tigris River, diverting water to its own farmers.

Farmers in Diyala will have to depend on wells for their crops, spokesperson for the ministry of agriculture Hameed al-Nayf told Rudaw English on Monday.

More than 100 wells were drilled in Diyala last month, state media reported, bringing the number up to 160. The new wells are to supply fresh drinking water and for orchards.

Aid agencies working in Iraq and Syria issued a dire warning in August saying at least seven million people in Iraq are losing access to water food and electricity because of the severe water crisis. Wheat production is expected to be down by 70 percent in Nineveh province and by half in the Kurdistan Region, according to the aid agencies. Already, bread prices increased this summer in the Kurdistan Region, partly because of hikes in international wheat prices after the United States slashed forecasts for the global wheat crop.

Groundwater levels in Sulaimani are down by as much as 17 metres. Water shortages have sparked protests in Erbil and severe pollution of water supplies have contributed to the problem.

Water levels in the Euphrates and Tigris rivers – shared by Iraq, Syria, and Turkey – have also dropped by more than half. Iraq is in talks with its neighbours to secure its share of the rivers and mitigate damage during times of water scarcity.

Rudaw

Tags: winter crops, Iraq, water crisis