Drought forces Iraq to abandon cultivation of crops
Due to the acute shortage of irrigation water, Iraq is reducing the cultivation of large areas of land and preventing the cultivation of strategic crops that are a source of livelihood for farmers, such as rice and corn.
Rice farmers in the areas of Salahiya, Mhanawiya and al-Shamiya in Diwaniyah province staged protests June 25. To express their plight caused by the drought, protesters lifted a coffin carrying a farmer holding an ax.
The farmers’ protests denounced the Ministry of Agriculture’s June 17 decision to ban the planting of eight summer crops: rice, white and yellow corn, sesame, cotton, millet, sunflower seeds and mung beans. The ministry claimed this is due to the reduced water levels of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
