Managing Salinity in Iraq's Agriculture: Investment Options for Government Agencies and Development Partners

Abstract

This report is the third and last in a series of publications that provide an overview of the Iraq Salinity Assessment. This report documents an initial set of investment options identified during the course of the project. It has been compiled from project contributions from a number of authors across all of its seven technical components. The Iraq Salinity Assessment synthesizes the results of the Iraq Salinity Project, a research partnership between five Iraqi ministries and national agencies and an international team of researchers. International partners in the project are the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (Lebanon), the lead institution, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (Australia), University of Western Australia, International Water Management Institute (Sri Lanka), and the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (UAE). The institutions of the Government of Iraq involved in the project include the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Water Resources, Ministry of Higher Education, and the Ministry of Environment. This research builds on previous work and technical studies undertaken in Iraq, and on the expertise of Iraqi agencies working to promote agricultural development over the past decades. It provides options based on the analysis of historical data and new data compiled in the Iraq Salinity Project and provides methods for reducing salinity, or the impact of salinity, on agriculture and the environment in Iraq. The assessment benefits from Australia's experience in dealing with similar, less severe, salinity problems in its agricultural sector. The salinity situation and agro-hydrological problems faced by Iraq are similar to those faced in Australia's Murray-Darling River basin. Australia has been tackling its salinity problem in a systematic way since the 1980s and today salinity is being controlled and reversed in many areas. The solutions and implementations presented in this report are a synthesis of a body of research – field level and technical studies in southern and central Iraq, a new body of data and information collected and compiled by the research team, and a series of technical and background papers.