Iraqi farmers embrace modern solutions to revive rice fields: Video
For four consecutive years, drought and declining rainfall have strangled rice production in Iraq. In response, innovative farming techniques are being employed to combat the crisis and revitalise the nation’s rice fields.
Iraqi farmer Muntazer Al-Joufi took action by implementing stronger seeds and water-saving irrigation techniques to combat the relentless drought that had caused his once-lush rice field to shrink in recent years.
The 40-year-old Joufi, whose land is in the central province of Najaf, shared his experience: “Using traditional methods, 10 to 15 people were required to manually get the water from here and there. Now, only one person is needed to operate the sprinklers and pump, and the field is irrigated properly," he is quoted by the AFP:
Joufi is among the farmers receiving support from the agriculture ministry, whose experts have been developing innovative methods to save Iraq’s rice production. In 2023, al-Ghari, a genotype derived from Iraq’s prized amber rice and South Asian jasmine seeds yielded good results when cultivated with small sprinklers.
"We worked on al-Ghari seed for almost 15 years and conducted all the necessary experiments on this genotype which is superior to other types that are found in Iraq, and it also withstands water scarcity," said Abdel Kazem Jawad Moussa, an official of the Agricultural Research Department in al-Mishkhab.
Iraq, still recovering from years of war and chaos, relies on rice and bread as dietary staples. According to the United Nations Global Environment Outlook 6 (GEO-6), the Middle Eastern nation is identified as the world's fifth most vulnerable country to decreasing water and food availability and extreme temperatures. During the period of drought, the rice cultivation area decreased from over 30,000 hectares to just 5,000, the agriculture ministry reported.
"The last year of abundance was around 2020. After that, there was a drought, and the pandemic and other events in the country. Rice cultivation stopped mainly because of water scarcity. During these years, the farmer suffered," Fayez al-Yassiri, another farmer with a field in Diwaniyah, the capital city of Iraq's Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate said.
