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Facing the effects of climate change on agriculture
2022-07-29
Professor Dr. Saif Al-Din Abdel Razzaq Salem
Desert Studies Center/ University of Anbar
The Arab homeland is one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to desertification and drought. Where 98% of the area of the Arab homeland is subject to arid and semi-arid climate, where about 66.5% of its area receives an annual rainfall of less than 100 mm. During the past two years, Iraq, Syria and Jordan faced severe droughts that they had not witnessed in decades. Some statistics indicate that about 18% of the total area of the Arab homeland has become under the influence of desertification, and Iraq has witnessed salinization and annual desertification of its land at a rate of 1% of the irrigated area.
Agriculture in Iraq suffers from low productivity in most crops, trees, and livestock production. Such as the lack of rainfall, the high rate of evaporation, the spread of soil salinity, the poverty of organic matter and the high percentage of calcium carbonate and gypsum. It is also the oldest means of production for the Iraqi farmer, his lack of use of modern mechanization, his material poverty, and his reluctance to introduce modern means for production are considered as one of the reasons for the deterioration of Iraqi agricultural production.
The information mentioned above, in addition to other factors, contributed not only to the decline in agricultural production but also to the deterioration of the lands that are left to be exploited and thus deteriorate further. Leaving the lands by farmers leads to migration to the cities and creates other social, economic, environmental and cultural problems that require reconsidering the reality of the countryside to stop internal migration.
Some notes and suggestions:
1. The most prominent examples of low productivity due to environmental, human, technical and modern problems are the productivity of wheat in Iraq. The productivity of wheat in Iraq no longer suffices the population’s need for bread since the end of the fifties of the last century, and the fragmentation of agricultural ownership and the failure to keep pace with modern sciences in agricultural and even urban planning by following, for example, geographic information systems or mathematical models, and no mechanism for their application led to the emergence of many problems that it has to be resolved.
2. All vegetable tubers and seeds in Iraq are imported, Iraq is not a producer of them, which is recommended to enable research bodies to produce these seeds despite the accumulation of a lot of research and scientific studies that if the financial credit was provided for it, it could be produced in Iraq, which would save the state billions of dinars.
3. Coordination and work with Iraqi institutions related to the climate and finding a mechanism to work and benefit from their capabilities and following its recommendations to overcome the climatic effects on Iraqi agriculture, Which needs a lot of transparency because it is unclear on current field agricultural applications.
4. Work to spread the climate-smart agriculture culture and approach in Iraq, as well as to reduce the potential negative effects of climate change in the agricultural field, and use modern techniques and technologies such as precision farming and the development of plant cultivars that are resistant or tolerant of high temperatures, as well as the development of drought and salinity tolerant cultivars.
5. The need to focus on climatic change elements that influence water resources and agriculture in some manner, monitor these changes and establish climate change plans and policies in the planning phases , based on climate predictions and predictions, and the expansion of the use of modern irrigation technology "smart irrigation" that provides in the quantities of irrigation in Desert and newly reclaimed lands, as well as in the lands of the centre and south, and the use of agricultural patterns that maximize the productive return in exchange for the unit of water used, and work on the use of modern technology and remote sensing in the field of climate and agricultural environment.
6. Formation of higher and technical committees from universities, relevant departments, and civil society institutions to work with the Ministry of Agriculture to address possible repercussions on the agricultural industry and revitalize institutions and laboratories affiliated with universities, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Water Resources to play their important and leading role in providing information and conducting research to counter the effects of climate change on agriculture.
Recommendations:
1. The potential of new indigenous cultivars to tolerate climatic change is being developed, and the growing season is short.
2. Match between technical ways for changes climatic and economic when implementing research.
3. Awareness farmers about adaptation to modify with climate change by changing both dates of planting crops and agricultural operations to match those changes; by activating the role of agricultural guidance authority in turning that.
4. Running new agricultural strategies to keep up with successive climate change.
5. The farming in the regions that have less vulnerability to climate change. Whereas the north and northwest of Iraq were the areas most affected by climate change the most resistant and tolerant cultivars to climatic changes are cultivated.
6. Developing systems of irrigation to get the most benefit from water to face an expected shortage as well as reducing the area of crops expendable for water like rice (for example).
7. Establishing centers to observe climatic changes as an early alarm to climate disasters.
8. Implementing a set of programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere like waste recycling.
9. Moving towards using new and renewable energy to reduce carbon emissions and support youth projects in this area through technological adoption and allocating financial support to them.
