{"id":129712,"date":"2026-05-25T06:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T06:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/129712\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T06:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T06:33:08","slug":"iraq-revives-rice-cultivation-for-2026-summer-farming-plan-shafaq-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/129712\/","title":{"rendered":"Iraq revives rice cultivation for 2026 summer farming plan – Shafaq News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n 2026-05-25T05:50:09+00:00<\/p>\n

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Shafaq News- Baghdad<\/p>\n

Iraq has moved forward with its 2026 summer farming plan,
\nexpanding cultivation and restoring rice production after a one-year
\nsuspension, as improved rainfall and higher reservoir levels offer limited
\nrelief to a system still under pressure.<\/p>\n

The plan, recently approved<\/a> by the Ministries of Agriculture
\nand Water Resources, includes summer maize, vegetables, cotton, sunflower,
\nsesame, and millet in an effort to balance food demand with limited water
\nresources.<\/p>\n

\u201cRice, which is among Iraq\u2019s most water-intensive and
\npolitically sensitive crops, returns to summer fields this year,\u201d Mehdi Damad
\nal-Qaisi, adviser at the Ministry of Agriculture, told Shafaq News, pointing
\nout that the crop remains part of the country\u2019s strategic food basket and feeds
\ndirectly into the public ration system.<\/p>\n

Cultivation will be concentrated in Najaf, al-Diwaniyah, and
\nal-Muthanna, with smaller plots spread across Diyala, Maysan, Babil, and Dhi
\nQar. Najaf leads with 170,000 dunams, followed by 120,000 in al-Diwaniyah,
\nwhile al-Muthanna receives 11,900 dunams.<\/p>\n

Overall, the summer plan covers about 1.44 million dunams.
\nOf that, 1,078,188 dunams depend on river irrigation, while 362,277 dunams are
\nirrigated through groundwater wells.<\/p>\n

Read more: Iraq\u2019s water crisis: A structural rewrite of agricultural governance<\/a><\/p>\n

Yet the water<\/a> situation remains uneven across the country.
\nSome regions have benefited from improved flows, but levels on the Euphrates
\ncontinue weak, leaving uncertainty over how smoothly the plan can be carried
\nout.<\/p>\n

Speaking to our agency, water and agricultural expert Adel
\nal-Mukhtar characterized Euphrates storage as \u201cconstrained,\u2019\u2019 adding that while
\nthe agricultural layout for the season appears workable, caution stays
\nnecessary given current conditions.<\/p>\n

He also pointed to maize cultivation as relatively well
\nstructured, while observing that Iraq\u2019s reliance on fluctuating inflows from
\nTurkiye and Iran continues to shape planting decisions year after year.<\/p>\n

For former parliamentary Agriculture Committee member Zozan
\nKojer, however, the issue extends beyond seasonal figures. Describing the plan
\nas one that shifts annually depending on water reserves, drought conditions,
\nrainfall patterns, upstream releases, and market demand, she urged stronger
\noversight of planting areas, broader adoption of modern irrigation systems, and
\nwider use of laser land levelling.<\/p>\n

More critical assessments view the renewed expansion of rice
\nfarming as a reflection of deeper structural limits. Water expert Tahsin
\nal-Mousawi cautioned that allocating more than 300,000 dunams for rice under
\nunstable water conditions carries considerable risk, especially as Iraq
\ncontinues to lack binding agreements on water shares with upstream countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dependence on flood irrigation and short-term seasonal
\nplanning is a bad approach,\u201d he warned, stressing that without a shift in
\npriorities, Iraq risks repeating a familiar cycle of temporary relief followed
\nby renewed shortages, as climate change accelerates desertification, soil
\nsalinity, and declining river flows across the country.<\/p>\n

Read more: Iraq faces severe drought as water inflows decline<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2026-05-25T05:50:09+00:00 font Enable Reading Mode A- A A+ Shafaq News- Baghdad Iraq has moved forward with its 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[14],"tags":[1011,31038,43546,94,43544,43545],"class_list":["post-129712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iraq","tag-agriculture","tag-drought","tag-farming-plan","tag-iraq","tag-iraq-revives-rice-cultivation-for-2026-summer-farming-plan","tag-rice-cultivation"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116633823080311960","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}