ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Daunting drought and earlier this year's bad weather have destroyed the vast majority of agricultural yields in Erbil province's Soran administration, causing significant financial losses to farmers, warned a local official on Wednesday.
Drought, reduced water levels, and devastating spring hail storm wreaked havoc on farming lands, said Kamaran Hussein, head of Soran’s Agriculture Department, warning that products have dropped by a staggering 80 percent.
“This year in general was a very bad year for agricultural yields,” Hussein said.
Hussein detailed that “a strong hail storm in early spring damaged gardens in Rawanduz, Balakayati, Mergasor, and Mazne district,” and as such fruit yields dropped as well.
To support domestic products, the government usually bans imports from neighboring countries when seasonal yields enter the market, but this year it was not the case, due to shortage.
“Last year, we had 7,154 tons of horticultural products, such as peaches, cabbage, watermelons and plums," Hussein said, noting this year about 3,000 tons of domestic produce ended up in the market."
"This led to the import of products to start early," he said.
Iraq is experiencing its worst drought since 1933, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) representative warned in early August
Farmland available for cultivation has been halved and rural families are being driven from their homes, Salah Haj told Rudaw, warning that the entire region has been affected by drought, but Iraq is bearing the brunt of the crisis.
FAO is working with the federal and Kurdistan Regional governments on water projects, including restoring a water-sensing system in Erbil to optimize irrigation times. Haj said the Kurdistan Region’s situation is better than the rest of Iraq’s.
Iraq heavily depends on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers for its water supply - both of which originate in Turkey. However, major dam projects in the northern neighboring country, including the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP), have significantly reduced the flow of water into Iraq, contributing to severe drought, desertification, and environmental degradation. Iraq is currently receiving less than 40 percent of its historical water share.
In early July, Turkey agreed to increase water releases into the Tigris and Euphrates rivers by 420 cubic meters per second, following a meeting in Ankara between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iraqi Speaker Mahmoud Mashhadani.
A statement from the Iraqi parliament at the time quoted Erdogan as “responding positively” to Iraq’s request, saying, “Turkey shares what God has bestowed upon it with its brothers in Iraq and will not withhold it from them.”
According to the World Resources Institute, Sulaimani and Duhok provinces in the Kurdistan Region are under the highest drought pressure and the risks and effects of climate change will be more pronounced in the next decade.
