Desertification in Iraq and how to Combatit

Abstract

Iraq faces many environmental challenges as a result of its geographical location within arid and semi-arid regions, as well as the economic, political and security conditions it faced. Desertification comes at the forefront of these challenges as it is considered one of the dangerous environmental manifestations because of its direct impact on food security and the impact on human health, which is the goal and main tool for development. This problem has been exacerbated during the last two decades due to several reasons, the most important of which are climate change, low rainfall rates, misuse of natural pastures, overgrazing and urban sprawl at the expense of agricultural lands in addition to unsustainable farming methods and wrong practices in irrigation operations and the increase in land areas affected by salinity and the significant deterioration in vegetation and those Covered by Moving sand dunes as a result of land degradation and erosion. In addition to the phenomenon of drying marshes, as they dried more than more than 90% of its area, and the research dealt with dividing the land of Iraq according to its production capacity into eight comprehensive sections for eight varieties.