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Basra successfully cultivates Amber rice using modern irrigation techniques, says local agriculture director

2024-09-08 | 15:03

BASRA — Basra has successfully cultivated the famed Iraqi Amber rice, traditionally grown in the Middle Euphrates fields of Najaf and Diwaniya, on a limited scale using modern irrigation techniques, according to Basra’s Agriculture Director, Hadi Hussein.

The cultivation of Amber rice, a water-intensive crop, has been repeatedly reduced or halted by the government due to drought and the large quantities of water consumed by the traditional flood irrigation method used by Middle Euphrates farmers. However, in Basra, Hussein confirmed that the Safwan area has successfully grown Amber rice using water-saving drip irrigation.

In an interview with Al Iraqiya, Hussein also commented on the status of palm trees in the province, noting that Basra’s palm tree count remains low at under 3 million, compared to 16 million in previous decades.

Excerpts from Hadi Hussein’s interview with Al Iraqiya:

We are committed to keeping up with scientific advancements and using modern irrigation sprinklers. In the deserts of Basra, in Zubair and Safwan, we have used fixed sprinklers and planted 21,000 dunams using drip irrigation, resulting in a tomato crop yield of approximately half a million tons, which covered all Iraqi provinces.

The use of modern irrigation systems has increased agricultural production rates in Basra. The production per dunam reached one and a quarter ton of wheat, while the production rate in irrigated areas reached 900 kilograms per dunam.

Basra is the most affected by climate change compared to other provinces, where many agricultural areas have fallen outside the plan due to saline encroachment and reduced water quotas. Nevertheless, we are trying to continue production by supporting small-scale farmers with appropriate sprinklers. Modern sprinklers are not suitable for their cultivated areas as they are designed to cover areas from 80 to 120 dunams, while most farmers own only 10 dunams or slightly more. Therefore, we have requested the Ministry of Agriculture to provide us with 668 modern sprinklers suitable for small areas

We are coordinating with organizations concerned with supporting the agricultural sector to expand the adoption of modern irrigation systems, despite some obstacles, such as the farmers’ reluctance due to the inability of the modern sprinklers’ to resist high levels of salinity in the water. For this reason, we plan to expand the reliance on the “T-TAPE” technology.

Basra contains one million dunams of agricultural land in irrigated areas and more than 1.2 million dunams in the “Khidr al-Mai” area in the desert. We have opened contracts for the southern desert, covering an area of 3 million dunams, despite Basra Oil Company’s objections to replicating the experience of Muthanna province. This led to hindrances in opening contracts for the available areas in “Khidr al-Mai.”

Basra once had 16 million palm trees, but now it has only 2.6 million. However, we are working with the concerned authorities to increase the number of palm trees in the province, especially as we shift palm cultivation from irrigated areas to desert areas. We now have 368,000 palm trees in the Zubair and Safwan regions, most of which are the well-known Barhi palms.

The private sector is the real front for agriculture, and we must support farmers by enacting a law for agricultural investors. The current Law No. 13, despite its success in some sectors, does not meet farmers’ needs and has put us before significant complications, as is the case with most current agricultural laws, which do not keep pace with modernization and do not align with current developments, as they were legislated in the 1970s.

There are successful experiences in regional countries such as the UAE, Turkey, Iran, and Jordan, and there is no harm in transferring these experiences, especially since all success factors are available in Iraq. We have successfully transferred the experience of planting Amber rice from Najaf province to the Safwan desert using drip techniques instead of pivot sprinklers.