Water crisis cuts Dhi Qar’s winter planting to record low

Shafaq News – Dhi Qar

Dhi Qar province will cultivate only 450 dunams of farmland this winter out of 380,000 originally proposed, as Iraq’s worsening drought cripples agriculture, an official said on Monday.

Agriculture Director Mohammed al-Yasiri told Shafaq News that the government approved wheat cultivation only, limited to farms with modern irrigation systems. Of the total, 250 dunams were allocated to al-Manar subdistrict and 200 to al-Chibayish, south of al-Nasiriyah.

“The situation of agriculture in Dhi Qar is dire,” al-Yasiri emphasized, citing poor rainfall and water scarcity. "The province received no allocation for summer crops."

Iraq’s southern provinces have suffered from a steep drop in water levels due to reduced flows from Turkiye, which controls the Tigris and Euphrates through a network of dams. Ankara recently increased discharges slightly after Baghdad pressed for a fixed quota, but the impact reportedly remains limited.

The ongoing drought has devastated farmland and dried large parts of the marshes, forcing many families in Dhi Qar and Maysan to abandon their villages.

Read more: Iraq’s water crisis deepens: Reserves collapse, mismanagement continues.