NRC warns drought crisis will endanger Iraq's farming communities

"Iraq’s farming communities will be forced from their lands to urban areas in search of alternative sources of income."

Wladimir van Wilgenburg 2022/10/24 22:08

A view of a dried up body of a dead fish on drying earth in the Chibayesh marshland in Iraq's southern Ahwar area, June 20, 2021. (Photo: Asaad Niazi/AFP)

Iraq Climate action Climate change draught Iraq Agriculture

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Farming communities in Iraq have seen their wheat, vegetable, and fruit harvests decline for the second year in a row because of severe drought conditions, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) warns in a new survey.

The survey was published ahead of the UN climate change conference (COP 27) in Egypt next month.

A quarter of the 1,341 households surveyed by NRC across five governorates this year said they witnessed over 90 per cent of wheat failure this season, a direct result of water shortages according to those interviewed.

A further 25 per cent said they had made no net profit out of their wheat crop for the entire year. "Prolonged drought spells have forced one-quarter of farming families to rely on food assistance amid a lack of harvest," the NRC said.

“We are seeing the continued damage from Iraq’s climate and water crisis,” said NRC’s Iraq Country Director James Munn in a statement. “People are witnessing their fertile land and crops vanish year after year. The lands that have fed a nation are drying up fast.”

"Should the current drought conditions continue to damage crops and harvests, Iraq’s farming communities will be forced from their lands to urban areas in search of alternative sources of income," the NRC warned.

Up to 4 per cent of those surveyed have been forced to move elsewhere as drought conditions get worse.

Farmer Tayseer, 42, told NRC he is considering leaving his land in Hawija, northern Iraq, as he expects a damaging income loss.

“I used to make IQD 10,000,000 ($6,800 USD) each season. This year I may not even get 2,000,000 ($1,400 USD) because I could only plant half of my land and will only get half of the produce that I used to get," he said.

“If drought continues, I have to find another job. I have to leave the land," he added. "Almost 10 families here have left their land… they couldn’t dig new wells or get electricity.”