Farmers Hadi Saheb cannot wait to see his wheat fields flourishing in the heart of the desert, when he tapped in groundwater reserves in Iraq filled with water.
He is one of the several Iraqis who have moved to drilling wells in the desert to help maintain the agriculture of the country.
This is a risky step that threatens to reduce groundwater in a nation before already dried and rare rains.
Although the fertile grounds of Iraq are traditionally spread with a once-metrous tiger and euphrates-the level has declined-Sahab’s huge land is located in the heart of the southern Najaf desert.
“The drought is spoiled from year to year, and the desertation intensifies,” said 46-year-old, dressed in a white abaya, which was washed away as a dust.
So he took advantage of a government initiative and turned to ground water.
It leases desert land to farmers at a symbolic value of one dollar per dunam (0.25 hectares in the measurement of Iraq). It also provides subsidized irrigation system and purchases its crop at a preferred rate.
Now that they do not need to rely completely on rainfall, Saheb said that he cultivates 20 times more land than before, and his crop has increased to 250 tonnes.
“It would be impossible to continue without ground water, which we cannot remove without drilling the wells,” he said.
Like many other farmers, Saheb has upgraded his irrigation techniques.
Strategic reserve
It now depends on a central-caste method that contains devices rotating in a circle for water crops via sprinkler.
It uses at least 50 percent less water than floods – in the more useless traditional way used for millennia, in which the land is submerged.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Iraq cultivated 3.1 million dunams (775,000 hectares) in this winter using groundwater and modern irrigation systems, while the rivers gave water to only two million dunams.
In Najaf, Desert farming There is a lot of expansion.
According to Monim Shahid of Najaf’s agricultural authorities, crop yield has been suitable for new irrigation methods, hard seeds and dry soils by fertilizers.
Shahid said that he expects a crop crop in Najaf this year, which is at least 1.7 tonnes per dunum in the desert, while compared to 1.3 tonnes in irrigated areas by rivers.
According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, last year, Iraq had a very good crop, a very good crop than the production of 6.4 million tonnes of wheat.
In the holy city of Karbala, religious institutions such as Imam Hussain pilgrimage site bring back the authorities and also support the desert cultivation.
Kahtan Awaz of the Agriculture Department of Shrine said that the institution, which appoints families in the desert areas of the farm, is cultivating 1,000 hectares and more than that amount is more than the triple.
Today, groundwater reservoirs help reduce agricultural loss due to drought, already frequent occurrence in Iraq that deteriorates by a warming planet.
But preserving those resources is proving to be a challenge.
Shahid of Najaf’s agricultural officials said, “We should be cautious in protecting groundwater”, it is called “a strategic reserve for future generations”.
He said that it should be used “rationed … and can help regulate sprinkler consumption”, he said.
to reduce
The Najaf desert is located on top of Umm al-Radhuma and Dammam Aquifers, which Iraq has shared with neighboring Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
According to the United Nations, the water level has declined in both aquifers, which has also warned that accefers worldwide are decreasing rapidly, as they can naturally fill again.
A 2023 United Nations report warned that Saudi Arabia used most of its groundwater to grow wheat in the desert, reduced its more than 80 percent of its resources and forced the authorities to prevent wheat cultivation after 2016.
A water politics and climate security expert, Al-Mukdadi, warned that the groundwater levels of Iraq had already fallen.
He said that the water was found 50 or 100 meters below the surface (165 to 330 ft), but today the wells have to dig 300 meters deep.
“People believe that these resources will remain forever … which is not true,” the lawsuit warned.
He said that there is no estimate of officials for the groundwater of Iraq, and the most recent figures are in the 1970s.
“If you have no guess, you cannot manage your resources.”
“Groundwater is a casual measure, and its use should only be used in immediate cases as” such as drought “” to maintain food security “, not to expand the farm for commercial purposes, the lawsuit said.
But unfortunately, “This is what we have nowadays”.
