An unusually bad drought has forced Iraq to suspend the cultivation of rice, corn and other cereals that demand large amounts of water, the country's Agriculture Ministry said.
"The agricultural plan for the summer" was modified "because the quantities of water needed for these cereals are not available", the ministry's spokesman Hamid al-Nayef said.
"The ministry does not take this decision lightheartedly," he said, adding that cereal crops would no longer be grown without authorization from the Water Resources Ministry.
Nicknamed the “land of the two rivers” due to the presence of the Tigris and Euphrates, Iraq has for years seen its water resources decrease. Beyond this year’s dramatic lack of rain, experts say a central reason for Iraq’s creeping drought is the regional sharing of its water resources, AFP reported.
