Record drought hits Iraq’s crops hard

For Kamel Hamed, an Iraqi farmer, the results are terrible. The harvest will be bad, the worst he has known, he says: “I don’t know what will happen to us. We are facing an exceptional drought. We were only able to plant a quarter of what we did last year. If things don’t change, that will become impossible “. Another farmer says he harvested 500 tons of wheat last year. Due to the drought, he plans to harvest only 50 to 70 tons for this year.

In this country to the 41 million inhabitants, climate change is particularly visible, with in particular the desertification of the land and low rainfall. Iraq is also dependent for water on several rivers such as the Tigris or the Euphrates. The construction of dams upstream of rivers and the drought experienced by other countries such as Turkey or Iran have further reduced the flow of rivers. Iraqi agriculture is also suffering from the war in Ukraine with difficulties in supplying food for livestock.