Water scarcity and its impact on wheat production In Najaf Governorate

Abstract

The water scarcity crisis in Iraq has worsened in recent years due to several intertwined causes, including poor water management, climate change, and declining water supplies from sources concentrated in Turkey and Iran. UN data indicates that 90% of Iraq's rivers are polluted, and it is expected that by 2035, Iraq's water will meet no more than 15% of the country's needs.Rainfall in Iraq remains below the expected levels for heavy precipitation, which threatens rain-fed agriculture and affects crops, particularly wheat, alongside a decrease in water reserves. Observers predict that the consequences of this dry winter will become evident during the upcoming summer season.Typically, the rainy season in Iraq begins with light to moderate rainfall, increasing in intensity in December. Water reserves, which were once 21 billion cubic meters, have fallen to below 13 billion cubic meters, a dangerously low level. Additionally, water inflows from Turkey have decreased to 300 cubic meters per second, a significantly low figure. As a result, water is being released from reserves to meet demand, exacerbating the already low storage issue.The researcher made the following recommendations:

1.Focus on supplemental irrigation to increase the efficiency of rainwater in crop irrigation whenever possible.

2.Improve the efficiency of water use by balancing water requirements with soil conditions and using improved seeds.

3.Implement water pricing for irrigation (cost recovery for water availability) to address the water situation in the research area.

4.Any water policy should consider the economic value of water in the agricultural sector.

5.Emphasize the need for sharing the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers as international rivers with upstream countries according to international agreements, and press towards achieving this goal.