Amin Salah used to grow wheat near the banks of Iraq's Euphrates River, but persistent droughts have led him to switch to farming unlikely new grounds deep in the harsh desert of Najaf.
Watered by sprinklers fitted to wells dug more than 100 metres under the sun-bleached earth, his land now produces double what it did compared to when he relied on ancient methods that flood fields with river water, he said.
Agriculture ministry spokesperson Mohammad Al-Khuzai said that has translated into a harvest of around 4 million tons of wheat - the largest in years and 80% of the needs of a country with a 43 million population who eat bread at almost every meal. However, heavy use of the wells could bleed desert aquifers dry, agricultural experts and environmentalists warn. Some farmers, including one near the Imam Hussein Holy Shrine in Karbala, one of Shiite Islam's holiest sites, have already noted a drop in the water table.
"You are plugging into aquifers that have been gathering water for thousands of years and will disappear in a few years if used this way," he said. Large institutions have bought into the shift to desert wells: The body that oversees the Imam Hussein Holy Shrine now farms 400 hectares of wheat in the desert - 55 kms from the shrine - up from 100 hectares in 2019.
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