By Layla Al-Rubaie ~
Walking through the scorching heat of Babil provinces, Saif Jassim, a professional farmer, strode through jade green okra and eggplant plants, his dusty boots now dry and cracked. Three years ago, the land yielded nothing but despair. Today, through the interventions of sustainable agriculture, it yields one of hope and recombining—a nascent revolution at the very center of Iraq.
Far in the Fertile Crescent, rural Iraq has suffered in recent decades under the ruin of war, irrigation, and climate change. The droughts grew more severe, and the salinization due to damming upcountry transformed vast tracts of fertile land into wasteland. But among this young generation of Iraqi farmers, scientists, and civil society activists are the people who are leading the turnaround—using sustainable farming practices that weave old tradition and technical acumen to resuscitate Iraq’s fields.
Renewing the Land, Renewing Communities
Deep at the heart of this revolution is a seemingly straightforward but radically powerful assumption: sustainable agriculture isn’t field planting—it’s renewing the land and communities that depend on them.
“I thought I had to abandon agriculture,” Saif says, considering abandoning farming and going off to Baghdad and getting a job. “Then we learned about crop rotation, drip irrigation, and composting. We were getting more of a harvest and weren’t using as much water. It was a hope-giver.”
Saif’s individual transformation is that of a single effort on the part of global bodies like the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. FAO collaborated with Iraq’s Ministry of Agriculture to educate hundreds of thousands of farmers in environmentally sustainable methods—pest control by organics to seeds that could tolerate drought.
Among them was one, in southern Iraq, who cultivated salt-resistant crops on salty land. These programs, a UNDP study said, enhanced food security as well as alleviated rural poverty—particularly for women, who are usually working capital of rural farms.
Ancient Practices, Modern Tools
Iraq’s green revolution return has been low tech, as has been its ancient. Farmers go back to Mesopotamia-style traditional ways of cultivating native trees for shade and anti-erosion cover and using animal dung as fertilizer.
Technology cannot be undervalued. Micro-level technology entrepreneurs have faith in this country and have developed applications on mobiles that provide timely information on the weather, pests, and soil. Kurdish areas also have solar-shaded greenhouses that extend seasons and save energy expenses.
Al-Nakhla Initiative is a great inspiration where subterranean root systems are employed, linking palm tree farm and sun in a bid to foster desert micro-farms in an eco-friendly way. In addition to protection and nourishment, the initiative also generates income through export of dates.
“Merging old technology and know-how is the answer,” says Dr. Hana al-Sabah, an environmental scientist at Basra University. “We cannot afford to lose any more land. This is a model to the region now.”
Youth-Led Change and the Way Forward
Most exciting of all, though, is who they are. Teens are reclaiming agriculture in Basra and Mosul—essentially on a volunteer basis, as they have a cause. Social media are full of photos of Gen Z farmers and green tubes and organics.
One of them, Green Horizons Iraq, was started by university students in Najaf and offers permaculture and land reclamation training. And their ambition: to transform Iraq into a model for the rest of the Middle East in sustainable agriculture.
But there are problems. Iraq is still unable to buy water from neighboring countries, still depends on traditional methods of irrigation, and does not have money to earn money on behalf of poor farmers. To resolve those problems, additional investment and policy change will be required.
But to a farmer such as Saif Jassim, it is important.
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