Iraq’s Farmers Pushed off Land as Drought and Heat Cripple Crops

Qasim Abdul Wahad, an Iraqi small-scale farmer, looks at his dying tomato crops on his farm near the village of Abu Al-Khaseeb in southern Iraq’s Basra governorate, March 6, 2022. (Thomson Reuters Foundation)
Qasim Abdul Wahad, an Iraqi small-scale farmer, looks at his dying tomato crops on his farm near the village of Abu Al-Khaseeb in southern Iraq’s Basra governorate, March 6, 2022. (Thomson Reuters Foundation)
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Iraq’s Farmers Pushed off Land as Drought and Heat Cripple Crops

Qasim Abdul Wahad, an Iraqi small-scale farmer, looks at his dying tomato crops on his farm near the village of Abu Al-Khaseeb in southern Iraq’s Basra governorate, March 6, 2022. (Thomson Reuters Foundation)
Qasim Abdul Wahad, an Iraqi small-scale farmer, looks at his dying tomato crops on his farm near the village of Abu Al-Khaseeb in southern Iraq’s Basra governorate, March 6, 2022. (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

Until a few years ago, farming in southern Iraq was "as lucrative as oil", Qasim Abdul Wahad remembers, and his one-hectare farm plot in the governorate of Basra produced enough to feed his family of eight.

Now dust kicks up under his feet as he walks through his land, after worsening extreme heat and drought linked to climate change killed 90% of his winter crops, including all of his okra and eggplant.

"Only a few years ago I would be able to sit here and relax. It was very green and beautiful. When I look at it now, I feel like a member of my family is gone," the 50-year-old said.

Abdul Wahad, who has spent his life farming in the village of Abu Al-Khaseeb - the names means "father of the fertile" - thinks he will soon have to abandon his land, to try to seek more fertile ground elsewhere.

"Three weeks ago I started thinking about moving to Babylon, to work as a farmer there. I don’t want to say it in front of my kids though,” he said, once his family were out of earshot.

Iraq is the fifth most vulnerable country in the world to extreme temperatures and water shortages, according to the UN Environment Program.

The Basra region - already stiffing in the summer, with a top recorded temperature of 53.8 degrees Celsius (129 degrees Fahrenheit) - is among the worst-affected areas.

As harsher drought and heat hit food production and the incomes of people dependent on agriculture, about one in 15 Iraqi households in late 2021 saw at least one family member migrate to seek new economic opportunities, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), which researches the issue.

More heat, less water
The pressures are evident in Abu Al-Khaseeb, south of the city of Basra along the Shatt Al-Arab river.

Abdul Wahad this winter lost an expected okra and eggplant harvest worth $3,700 as well as the $400 he spent to plant it. The winter before he lost half of the same two crops.

"There is more dust now because of climate change, the rise in temperature is unbearable and there is also a new kind of infection and mites we are noticing that we haven’t seen before,” he said.

Abu Al-Khaseeb was once famous for dates, but its palm trees are caked in dust and production is falling. Abdul Wahad's last date harvest was 350 kg lower than the year before, he said.

"I have to do some other work now because I can’t just depend on my farm anymore,” he said.

Ally-Raza Qureshi, a representative of the UN World Food Program (WFP) in Iraq, said farmers need help to adapt to changing conditions, through measures such as adopting drought-resistant crop varieties and better drip irrigation systems.

But a lack of awareness in Iraq of the magnitude of the climate change threat - and continuing use of age-old practices - are both factors limiting change, he said.

"In most cases, farmers are still using methods from centuries ago, when water was not as scarce and weather was not as hot," he said.

To cope with the rising temperatures and lack of water, Abdul Wahad has resorted to trying to shade some of his crop and is buying drinking water to mix with tap water to irrigate his plants, an expensive and unsustainable plan.

His farm normally draws water from the adjacent Shatt Al-Arab river, but its level has now fallen so low it can no longer irrigate his fields.

Iraq is predicted to see a 20% drop in water availability by 2050, which could parch a third of its irrigated land, according to the World Bank.

'Do we all have to leave?'
Further upriver, around the village of Al-Qurna - where the Shatt Al-Arab forms at the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers - many fields are still green with wheat, but others were flattened in a recent sandstorm.

"If the wheat is knocked down, that’s it,” farmer Hadi Badr Al-Malai, 57, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, motioning to his damaged fields.

The large-scale farmer is also battling rising salinity in the soil because of poor drainage, forcing him to leave sections of his 5,000 dunums (1,250 hectares) of land unplanted.

Such problems cut his income by $10,000 last season compared to the previous year, he said.

"I’m worried about the future. Do we all have to leave? Will all my kids have to look for governmental jobs?,” asked Al-Malaki, noting his oldest son already works an off-farm security job, though he comes back to help on the land as well.

According to Caroline Zullo, an NRC policy advisor, almost half of wheat farmers around Al-Qurna lost their entire wheat harvest in the most recent crop season.

Such losses are driving growing migration, usually away from farming.

Haidar Sabah Radi, with his wife and six kids, earlier this year left his 75-dunum farm for Al-Qurna village - eight kilometers away - to find work as a taxi driver.

Last summer he sold all of his livestock - including 90 cows and 200 ostriches - because he could no longer afford to feed them.

"There’s no support from the government," he complained, saying he worried his children will now be disconnected from farming life.

Iraq's Ministry of Agriculture did not respond to a request for comment on support measures for farmers.

According to a January report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, over 90% of livestock producers in Iraq last October had difficulty accessing water or buying feed as a result of drought.

Urban tensions
Growing climate-related migration is already evident, with tensions in urban areas growing as competition for jobs and resources increases, leading to social conflict and growing income disparities, WFP's Qureshi said.

Many fear cities will not be able to provide enough work and homes for those displaced from farming, said Zullo of NRC.

Abd Al-Hussein Al-Abadi, the head of the Federation of Farmers Association in Basra, said government support - including compensation for ruined crops - is essential for farmers to stay on their land.

Failure to provide that could hurt Iraq's broader economy if farmers abandon their land and the country needs to import more food, he said.

The challenge is particularly severe as the Ukraine-Russian war dries up exports from two major wheat producers, leading to soaring prices for that grain and other imported commodities.

Iraq's government is helping some farmers by providing hybrid wheat seed designed to stand up to worsening soil salinity, wind and sand storms.

But Mujtaba Noori, the Ministry of Agriculture research department head in Al-Qurna, said not all wheat farmers have access to the seed, in part because they are not equipped to follow ministry rules on how to plant the new varieties.

Al-Abadi, of the farmers association in Basra, said only 20% of wheat farmers in the Basra governorate have so far been able to buy the hybrid seeds.

"The farmers need to make a profit. If there won’t be serious support by the government with seeds… then the farmers will keep losing year after year," he predicted.



Ukraine's Earth Riches Are Rare and Difficult to Reach

 Ukraine has huge mineral resources and some coal mines are still operating despite Russia's invasion but huge investment will be needed to reach its rare earths. (AFP)
Ukraine has huge mineral resources and some coal mines are still operating despite Russia's invasion but huge investment will be needed to reach its rare earths. (AFP)
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Ukraine's Earth Riches Are Rare and Difficult to Reach

 Ukraine has huge mineral resources and some coal mines are still operating despite Russia's invasion but huge investment will be needed to reach its rare earths. (AFP)
Ukraine has huge mineral resources and some coal mines are still operating despite Russia's invasion but huge investment will be needed to reach its rare earths. (AFP)

Ukraine's soils hold some five percent of the world's mineral resources, which is what US President Donald Trump is anxious to secure, but not all of them are yet exploited -- or maybe even exploitable, according to experts.

Ukraine ranks 40th among mineral-producing countries, all categories combined (including coal), according to the 2024 edition of World Mining Data. It was the world's 10th largest producer of iron in 2022.

Geologists, including at France's Bureau of Geological and Mining Research (BRGM), found more than 100 resources, including iron, manganese and uranium, in a study of Ukraine published in 2023.

Minerals can be described as critical or strategic by countries for their economy or their energy production. The United States designates about 50 and the European Union more than 30.

The European Commission said: "Ukraine is a significant global supplier of titanium and is a potential source of over 20 critical raw materials."

It is a notable producer of manganese (the world's eighth largest producer, according to World Mining Data), titanium (11th) and graphite (14th), which is essential for electric batteries.

Ukraine has also said it "possesses one of the largest lithium deposits in Europe". However, the government added that the soft metal it is not yet extracted.

Rare earth elements (REE) are a very specific classification of 17 metals within the much wider category of critical minerals.

Ukraine is not known for its reserves of rare earths, which are essential for screens, drones, wind turbines, and electric motors. Trump has particularly declared he wants rare earths and demanded an accord on getting minerals in return for US aid for Ukraine to fight its war with Russia.

"Ukraine has several deposits containing rare earth elements" but none of these deposits have been mined, said Elena Safirova, a Ukraine specialist at the US Geological Survey.

In 2023, the BRGM said Ukraine has "significant REE resources" but that further exploration and development would require heavy investment.

The Ukrainian government said "rare earth metals are known to exist in six deposits". It said investment of $300 million would be needed to develop the Novopoltavske deposit, "which is one of the largest in the world".

Technically, some of the elements cited by the Ukrainian government (tantalum, niobium, beryllium, strontium, magnetite) are not on the list of 17 rare earths.

And some of the Ukrainian government projections are based on "a Soviet-era assessment of difficult-to-access rare earths deposits," rating agency S&P said in February.

Because the country's rare earths may be too low in concentration or too difficult to access, "Ukraine's deposits of rare earth elements might not be profitable to extract", S&P said.