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Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

Welcome to the Neno's Place!

Neno's Place Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality


Neno

I can be reached by phone or text 8am-7pm cst 972-768-9772 or, once joining the board I can be reached by a (PM) Private Message.

Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

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    The end of the era of the Tigris and Euphrates: the first agricultural plan with groundwater in Iraq

    Rocky
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    The end of the era of the Tigris and Euphrates: the first agricultural plan with groundwater in Iraq Empty The end of the era of the Tigris and Euphrates: the first agricultural plan with groundwater in Iraq

    Post by Rocky Mon 25 Sep 2023, 5:08 am

    The end of the era of the Tigris and Euphrates: the first agricultural plan with groundwater in Iraq

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    Economy News - Baghdad
    A difficult time is being experienced by one of the largest Arab agricultural countries, which has led it to reduce its reliance on two of the largest rivers in the region and the world, the Tigris and Euphrates, in its new agricultural plan, and to rely on groundwater as the main source of irrigation in Iraq, after the two rivers witnessed a historic decline in their water quantities due to dams. Built by neighboring countries, Iran and Turkey, and climate changes in the region.
    The Iraqi Ministries of Agriculture and Water Resources approved an agricultural plan for the upcoming winter season, which is considered the first of its kind in the country’s history, by relying mainly on groundwater to secure irrigation water, amid major challenges related to the state’s ability to secure modern irrigation systems that it now sells to farmers at subsidized prices. According to a plan aimed at reducing water consumption and leaving the old irrigation route.
    According to recent official data, the agricultural season plan in all cities of Iraq for the winter season 2023/2024 depends on cultivating only 5.5 million dunums, and the area of ​​cultivation depending on surface water (the Tigris and Euphrates rivers) will be 1.5 million dunums, while the area cultivated with groundwater will be About 4 million dunams.
    The Iraqi Minister of Water Resources, Aoun Dhiyab Ahmed, recently spoke in a joint press conference with the Minister of Agriculture, Abbas Jabr, about the continued development of plans and monitoring regarding the water situation in Iraq and meteorological forecasts for the expected rains during the winter period.
    Observers and specialists in agricultural affairs in Iraq told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the government decided to abandon the cultivation of more than 7 million dunums, and to be satisfied with cultivating about 5.5 million dunums in response to the drought crisis facing the country (a dunum = 1,000 square metres).
    This agricultural plan is the first of its kind in Iraq, in which about 75 percent of well water is relied upon to ensure irrigation of crops.
    In the same context, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Mehdi Sahar, said in a brief interview with Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that his country approved the agriculture plan for this season based on water storage and rain expectations.
    He stressed that "the winter plan focused on growing the main winter crops for the Iraqi family, with the aim of meeting the local market's need for them and not importing them from abroad."
    This comes in conjunction with the announcement by the Iraqi Ministry of Resources of drilling about 600 wells in various cities of Iraq, out of a plan that aims to dig a thousand wells during the current year, which it said most of them are for the public benefit, in areas experiencing water scarcity.
    Observers and specialists in agricultural affairs in Iraq tell Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the government has decided to abandon the cultivation of more than 7 million dunums.
    A worker in the operations unit of the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture, agricultural engineer Kamal Al-Khazraji, told Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed that this is the first plan in which groundwater is the primary source of agriculture in Mesopotamia.
    Al-Khazraji added: “We still need to develop water reservoirs and prepare a national map of groundwater areas. Currently, we only have to drill and extract water, and some areas do not find sufficient water, but these are preliminary treatments that will take us to the planning stage and develop a new map for agricultural water.”
    He stressed that the groundwater in Iraq is close to the surface of the earth, so the costs of drilling are not large for the farmer or the state, and we hope that we will move towards expanding the agricultural area through wells away from the rivers.
    He explained that tomatoes, cucumbers and potatoes, in addition to other major crops, will be targeted in agriculture primarily to meet the full market need, and farmers will be supported financially and crops will be purchased from them, through delivery centers if they do not sell their crops in the market, revealing that rice crops of all types will be excluded from Agriculture this year due to its consumption of large amounts of water.
    Last June, the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture announced the provision of profit- and interest-free loans with a repayment period of up to 5 years, allocated to farmers wishing to purchase modern irrigation systems for their agricultural lands. Ministry spokesman Muhammad Al-Khuzaie stated that a plan had been approved to expand the use of modern technologies
    in Irrigation, and encouraging investors and farmers to purchase modern irrigation systems (pivotal sprinklers), through interest-free loans and repayment spans over five years.”
    He added that it "also encourages merchants to import these machine guns through customs exemptions."
    The main problem facing Iraqi agriculture remains related to water, as the Minister of Water Resources in Iraq, Aoun Dhiab, revealed earlier that the country’s strategic water reserve had declined by 7 billion cubic meters compared to the summer of last year 2022.
    Dhiab confirmed, in a press statement, that the decline in strategic reserves and the drop in water levels pose a major threat to agriculture in the country, and that the available storage may not be sufficient until the end of this year.
    He added that water releases from Turkey to the Euphrates River on the Syrian border are still very limited, and do not fit the needs of the two countries (Syria and Iraq), and that what is released to the river is 50 percent less than what was agreed upon.
    He stated that the sharp decline in the quantities of Iraqi water reserves constitutes a clear threat and portends a real disaster, and therefore agriculture will be very specific, especially for the rice crop in the regions of the Middle Euphrates.
    According to an official report, the major dams built by neighboring countries (Iran and Turkey) blocked about 70% of Iraq's water share.
    According to a previous United Nations report on water security in the Arab region, 17 countries in the Arab world out of 22 are currently on the water poverty line, including 12 countries that are already suffering below the extreme water poverty line, including Iraq.
    However, during the years 2019 and 2020, Iraq succeeded in achieving self-sufficiency in more than 10 agricultural crops, most notably wheat, barley, and other consumer crops such as cucumbers, potatoes, and tomatoes. Then, the agricultural areas declined due to the receding waters, which led to the ban on importing these materials being lifted again and their flow from Iran and Turkey to the country. Specifically.
     
    Source: Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed


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