The Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture warned on May 8 that 90% of Iraqi agricultural land has desertified or is on the verge of desertification owing to climate change and water issues with Iran and Turkey.

The government had warned in 2020 that the rate of desertification in Iraq had climbed to 53%. This is a major threat not just to the environment, but also to food security, which has been jeopardized due to a decline in the yield of critical crops such as wheat, barley, and rice.

According to the government, Iraq ranks sixth in the world in terms of the severity of climate change consequences.

According to Rawya Mazal, the officer in charge of the Ministry of Agriculture's desertification dossier, problems contributing to the problem include global warming, drought, excessive use of water by farmers and civilians, as well as conflicts and military activities.

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She explained that “Iraq urgently needs to negotiate with Turkey and Iran to release water, reduce water consumption and eliminate excessive use, and establish a canal to harvest rainwater, with desert oases."

Mazal emphasized that if immediate action is not taken, the Iraq scenario will be the worst in the region. She claims that dryness affects or threatens 92% of Iraq and that Sawa Lake near Samawah has totally dried up.

According to Adel Al-Mokhtar, Advisor to Parliament's Agriculture Committee, Iraq has 20 billion cubic meters of water reserves, which the country may deplete this year. Turkey, Iran, and Syria are also facing a water crisis that will require international collaboration to resolve.

Al-Mokhtar claims that primitive irrigation practices, as well as informal fish lakes, squander key water sources. A shrinking agricultural footprint may cause up to seven million inhabitants to migrate from the countryside to cities, resulting in a serious problem in unemployment and service supply.

Iraq relies on the governorates of Saladin and Diyala to deliver fruits and vegetables to all inhabitants, but these have been the most hit places in the country thus far. Despite the paucity of water, Iraq wants to grow three million tons of wheat in the midst of the worldwide wheat crisis.

Raad Al-Tamimi, head of the Farmers Association, told Al-Monitor that “50% of the land in Diyala suffers from desertification, and the government has prevented us from cultivating strategic crops this season such as wheat, barley, and rice, which has contributed to the migration of 500,000 citizens from Diyala countryside to the city center since 2017.”

He accused the Ministry of Water Resources of squandering water by releasing water from the Lake Hamrin, Hamrin, and Alwand dams and flooding orchards in 2020, stating the water would have been useful for 3 years. He claimed Diyala will cease supplying the country with fruits and vegetables after this season since its grounds are at risk of desertification.

Tamimi advocated for the resumption of work on the Makhoul and Badush dams, which had been abandoned by the previous administration and had the capacity to hold over 20 billion cubic meters of water. He claimed that owing to a shortage of feed and water, the bulk of animals in Diyala had been sold or butchered.

In 2018, the Iraq Private Banks League and the Central Bank's Labour Fund (Tamkeen) started a campaign to plant two million seedlings.

According to Akram Al-Salmani, director of Al-Bayt al-Akhdar [Green House], the major cause of desertification is the removal of green belts around towns as a result of population increase.

With no government plans to develop new dwellings, residents have begun removing trees and bulldozing orchards to make way for new residences. According to Salmani, Iraq needs to plant 13 billion seedlings over the next 20 years.

He believes that bringing in multinational firms to invest in lands and extract groundwater using contemporary technologies is the greatest option, but if the situation continues the same, Iraqi farmers would quickly deplete the groundwater.

The government of Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi started paying attention to the green economy by launching a specialized program that includes agricultural investment, modern irrigation technology, and clean electricity production, but all this has yet to be implemented because the budget has not yet been approved.