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GARMIYAN, Kurdistan Region - Severe drought has wreaked havoc on farming in the Kurdistan Region’s Garmiyan administration for the past two years, causing huge financial losses for local farmers.
Farmers have lost over 30 million dinars as a result of the drought in the area last year. Despite this, farmers continue to harvest wheat in hopes of making profit.
One farmer in Garmiyan has planted 10 tons of wheat in 200 dunams of land, hoping the harvest would compensate for what was lost in 2021.
“I wanted to compensate for last year’s drought. Unfortunately, this year was the same and it did not rain,” Ali Rashid, the farmer, told Rudaw’s Hunar Hamid on Tuesday.
The Garmiyan area used to be known for being rich in water resources, but has only seen 125mm of rainfall this year.
The General Manager of Garmiyan Agriculture, Shadia Hussain, said they prepared a report along with proposed solutions to end the drought issue in the area. “One of the fastest solutions is to provide seeds to the farmers,” she stated.
According to statistics from Garmiyan agriculture, 6,287 farmers planted wheat on dry soil, losing 3,200,000 billion Iraqi dinars in 2021.
Water scarcity is a severe issue in Iraq. The country is the fifth-most vulnerable nation to the effects of climate change, including water and food insecurity, according to the UN, yet it is lagging behind its neighbors when it comes to a plan to protect its water resources.
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