Anbar station grows pistachios in the desert after five years of trials

ANBAR — The al-Qaim horticulture station has produced pistachios in the hot, dry climate of western Anbar after about five years of trials with varieties brought from Syria and Iran, its director said.

The trials began with seedlings imported from Syria before Iranian varieties were introduced to compare how each adapted, said Marwan Ahmed Kafi, the station’s director and chief agricultural engineer. The trees withstood high temperatures and drought, including this summer’s heat, with limited and mild disease, he said. Basra reached 51°C this year and Maysan and Dhi Qar 50°C.

Over five years the station built a cultivation programme suited to al-Qaim, covering flowering, pollination, spraying and fertilising through to harvest. This season’s nuts were large and well filled, Kafi said, and the results have prompted plans to expand the area under cultivation. The station is also increasing production of grafted seedlings, plans to use new rootstocks to improve resistance and yield, and is testing other drought-tolerant fruit trees with the aim of supplying farmers planting on desert land.

The Water Resources Ministry said last year that climate change, low rainfall and reduced inflows from upstream had given Iraq its worst drought since 1933.