Farmers innovate to save Iraq's rice productionSalam Faraj with Hayder Indhar in Diwaniyah August 6, 2024

Experts say the new methods using sprinklers and drip irrigation use 70% less water than the traditional flooding practice of Iraqi rice farmers (Qassem al-KAABI)

By AFP - Agence France Presse

Farmers innovate to save Iraq's rice production

Salam Faraj with Hayder Indhar in Diwaniyah

After seeing his once lush rice plantation shrink in recent years due to relentless drought, Iraqi farmer Muntazer al-Joufi has responded by using more resistant seeds and water-saving irrigation techniques.

“This is the first time we are using modern techniques that consume less water” to grow rice, said Joufi, 40, while examining his land in the central province of Najaf.

“There is a huge difference” compared to flooding the field, Joufi added, referring to a traditional method by which the land must remain submerged throughout the summer.

However, four consecutive years of drought and decreasing rainfall have strangled rice production in Iraq, which is still recovering from years of war and chaos, and where rice and bread are the basis of the diet.

The United Nations says Iraq is one of the five most climate-vulnerable nations in the world.

Joufi is among the farmers receiving support from the Ministry of Agriculture, whose experts have been developing innovative methods to save Iraq's rice production.

Their work involves combining resistant rice seeds with modern irrigation systems to replace the flooding method in a country that is hit by water shortages, heatwaves, and increasingly scarce rivers.

Under the scorching Iraqi sun, with the temperature reaching 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit), Joufi walked through the muddy field, stopping to tend to the faulty sprinklers scattered across his hectare of land.

Iraq's rice crop usually requires between 10 and 12 billion cubic meters of water during the five-month growing season.

However, experts say that the new methods using sprinklers and drip irrigation use 70% less water than the traditional practice of flooding when workers had to ensure that the fields were completely covered with water.

Now, said Joufi, it only takes “one person to turn on the sprinklers... and the water reaches every piece of land”.

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Experts from the Ministry of Agriculture say that during the years of drought, the area planted with rice fell from more than 30,000 hectares to just 5,000.

“Because of the drought and the scarcity of water, we need to use modern irrigation techniques and new seeds,” said Abdel Kazem Jawad Moussa, who leads a team of experts.

They have been experimenting with different types of sprinklers, drip irrigation, and five different types of seeds that resist drought and consume less water, in the hope of finding the best combination.

“We want to know which seed genotypes respond well” to sprinkler irrigation instead of flooding, said Moussa.

Last year, Al-Ghari - a genotype derived from Iraq's prized amber rice - and South Asian jasmine seeds produced good results when grown with small sprinklers, so the experts offered the combination to farmers like Joufi, hoping for the best.

“At the end of the season, we will make recommendations,” said Moussa, adding that he also hoped to introduce three new types of seeds next year, with a shorter planting season.

In addition to the drought, authorities blame upstream dams built by Iraq's powerful neighbors, Iran and Turkey, for the drastic reduction in water levels in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which have irrigated Iraq for millennia.

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The water shortage has forced many farmers to abandon their plots, and the authorities have drastically reduced agricultural activity to guarantee enough drinking water for Iraq's 43 million inhabitants.

By 2022, the authorities have limited rice-growing areas to 1,000 hectares in Najaf and in the southern province of Diwaniyah, which is the heart of amber rice planting.

Recently, farmers in Diwaniyah protested, asking the government to allow them to cultivate their land after a two-year hiatus.

But despite the abundant rains this winter that helped alleviate the water shortage, the authorities only allowed them to grow rice on 30% of their land.

“The last good year was 2020,” said farmer Fayez al-Yassiri in his field in Diwaniyah, where he hopes to continue growing amber and jasmine rice.

Iraq is the second largest oil producer in the OPEC cartel, but despite having immense oil and gas reserves, it remains dependent on imports to meet its energy needs and faces chronic power outages.

Yassiri asked the authorities for help, specifically providing electricity and pesticides to farmers.

His cousin Bassem Yassiri was less hopeful: “The lack of water has wiped out agriculture in this region,” he said.

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