Drought withers Iraqi farms, food supplies
by Deborah Amos | Listen to the Story [4 min 38 sec] Iraq has one of the largest oil reserves in the world, but it’s running out of another valuable commodity: water. Iraq’s ancient name, Mesopotamia, means the land between two rivers: the Tigris and the Euphrates, which flow into Iraq from Turkey and Syria. But water is now so limited for agriculture that Iraq imports 80 percent of the food Iraqis eat. During the holy month of Ramadan, traditional foods that typically come from Iraqi farms are getting harder to find. Iraq once had the most fertile lands in the region, but the low waters of the Tigris serve as a reminder of an environmental disaster — a two-year drought — along with decades of war and mismanagement. For Iraqi rice farmers, the lack of water is a catastrophe. Kamel al-Kafaji has been farming since he was a boy, but the future is bleak for his own son. Kafaji grows ambar rice, an aromatic variety that is especially popular during Ramadan — part of a food tradition when Iraqis break their fast at sunset. “It’s no lie — Iraqis cannot live without ambar rice,” he says. Placing the small rice plants into wet ground by hand is hard work in the burning heat, but harder still is getting enough water to keep the plants alive. “It is a tragedy. I have planted 50 percent of the land while only 20 percent will survive till the harvest time. The reason behind this is the water shortage,” Kafaji says. …
