Rehabilitation of natural pastures in Iraq

Assist. Prof. Dr. Nawfal Adnan Sabry Al-Nuaimy

Upper Euphrates Basin Development Center

University of Anbar

The Iraqi valleys cover approximately 200,000 km² of the total area of Iraq, where many desert wanderers (Bedouins) who move behind food and water and many sheep, goats and camel breeders come from the banks of Mesopotamia in early winter for grazing, so his valleys are an important source of our livestock wealth. In 1973, the number of Bedouins was estimated at about a quarter of a million in Iraq. Grasslands and shrubs form a large wealth above the earth's surface and are increasingly important in cold areas, where the growing season is shortened and temperatures dropped. Dr. Arthur Simpson from the University of California had said “Natural pastures are a vast land where the natural plant grows and is usually unfenced and located in low-rain areas where livestock are sponsored”. Poor quality, saline and sulphurous water can be exploited in the development of the Horan Valley, improving the quality and quantity of animal products and eliminating the costs of establishing feed plants and the costs of purchasing grains and field crops needed to make fodder by exporting excess of them and exploiting the rest for human consumption. This can be achieved by drilling wells based on solar cells to provide electricity to operate drag pumps in any area and conduct irrigation spraying for that area, allowing the growth of various types of natural plant, especially the important ones, and developing it and managing pastures well so as to allow the growth of plants alternately allowing the provision of periodic pastures of different stages of growth that allow livestock to graze periodically in addition to establishing proper corals for domestication.