NAJAF, Iraq: After his once-lush rice field shrank in recent years due to persistent drought, Iraqi farmer Muntazer Al-Joufi fought back against the rain with hardier seeds and water-saving irrigation techniques.
“This is the first time we are using modern rice cultivation techniques that use less water,” said Joufi, 40, as he inspected 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 that requires the land to remain underwater all summer.
But four consecutive years of drought and declining rainfall have brought rice production in Iraq to a standstill. The country is still recovering from years of war and chaos, and rice and bread are staple foods for the population.
According to the United Nations, Iraq is one of the five countries in the world most affected by climate change.
Joufi is among the farmers supported by the Ministry of Agriculture, whose experts are developing innovative methods to save Iraq's rice production.
Their work involves combining resilient rice seeds with modern irrigation systems to replace the flooding method in a country plagued by water shortages, heat waves and drying up rivers.
Under the scorching Iraqi sun and in temperatures approaching 50 degrees Celsius, Joufi trudged across the muddy field, stopping frequently to tend to the broken sprinkler systems that were scattered across his one-hectare property.
Iraq's rice crop typically requires between 10 and 12 billion cubic meters of water during the five-month growing season.
However, experts say new methods using sprinkler and drip irrigation use 70 percent less water than traditional flooding practices, which require workers to ensure fields are completely covered with water.
Now, says Joufi, “all it takes is one person to turn on the sprinkler system… and the water reaches every corner of the country.”
According to experts from the Ministry of Agriculture, the area used for rice cultivation shrank from over 30,000 hectares to only 5,000 hectares during the drought years.
“Because of the drought and water shortages, we need to use modern irrigation techniques and new seeds,” says Abdel Kazem Jawad Moussa, who leads a team of such experts.
Hoping to find the best combination, they experimented with different types of sprinklers, drip irrigation, and five different types of seeds that are drought tolerant and use less water.
“We want to find out which seed genotypes respond well to irrigation with sprinklers instead of floods,” Moussa said.
Last year, Al-Ghari – a genotype derived from the coveted Iraqi amber rice – and South Asian jasmine seeds produced good results when grown with small sprinklers, so experts offered the combination to farmers like Joufi and hoped for the best.
“We will make recommendations at the end of the season,” Moussa said, adding that he also hopes to introduce three new seed varieties next year with a shorter planting season.
In addition to the drought, authorities also blame the dams built upstream by Iraq's powerful neighbors Iran and Turkey for the dramatic drop in water levels in the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, which have supplied Iraq with water for thousands of years.
Due to the water shortage, many farmers have had to abandon their fields and the authorities have drastically restricted agricultural activity in order to ensure the drinking water supply for the 43 million Iraqis.
In 2022, authorities limited rice cultivation areas in Najaf and the southern province of Diwaniya, the core areas of amber rice cultivation, to 1,000 hectares.
Recently, farmers protested in Diwaniyah, demanding that the government allow them to cultivate their fields after a two-year freeze.
But despite heavy rains this winter that alleviated water shortages, authorities allowed farmers to grow rice on only 30 percent of their land.
“The last good year was 2020,” said farmer Fayez Al-Yassiri in his field in Diwaniyah, where he plans to continue growing amber and jasmine rice.
Iraq is the OPEC cartel's second-largest oil producer. But despite its enormous oil and gas reserves, the country continues to rely on imports to meet its energy needs and suffers from constant power outages.
Yassiri called on authorities to help, particularly by providing farmers with electricity and pesticides.
His cousin Bassem Yassiri was less optimistic. “Water shortages have put an end to agriculture in this region,” he said.
