Baghdad Invest - 20/06/2012 Baghdad.
The Iraq Salinity Project aims to develop
long-term strategies to manage salinity in central and southern Iraq.
It is coordinated by the International Center for
Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and is scheduled to run until
the end of 2014.
Kamal Hussein, Iraqi deputy minister of
environment, told SciDev.Net that farmers abandon an estimated 25,000
hectares of farmland in central and southern Iraq every year because of elevated
salt levels.
"Watering crops [through traditional
irrigation canals] is one of the main causes of the salinity problem in Iraq,"
said Hussein, pointing out that the irrigation water washes out the salt (from
natural sources and fertilisers) from soil in the more elevated northern parts
of the country and brings it to the southern parts.
Nasri Haddad, coordinator of ICARDA's West Asia
Regional Program, told SciDev.Net: "The project will
develop in-depth research to identify how to rid the water and soil of salinity,
and suggest strategies for water management to achieve this
goal".
He added that rising salt levels in soil
and water is a global problem.
"This project is a glimmer of hope to many other
countries that have a bitter experience with salinity," he said, adding that the
techniques to tackle the problem developed in Iraq will be made available to
other countries.
The project is operating at three
different scales: regionally to identify the distribution of salt-affected soils
and causes of soil salinity; locally to assess the irrigation and drainage
infrastructure; and on farms to find out the best ways to control salt levels in
soil.
Kasim Ahmed Saliem, the project coordinator and
the head of the planning and follow-up department at the Ministry of
Agriculture, said: "We hope that there will be a second phase
of the project based on the results that will be
achieved, but this depends on the ability to bring additional
support from donors to finance long-term efforts to combat
salinity."
The initiative involves the training
of Iraqi researchers and linking the country with potential donors to ensure the
project's long-term sustainability. It also aims to establish reliable
agricultural infrastructure.
The project is funded by the Australian
Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and the Italian
government, and implemented by ICARDA in partnership with the University of
Western Australia, Australia's national science agency CSIRO, the International
Water Management Institute and the International Center for Biosaline
Agriculture.
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