Read at : Google Alert – desertification
http://www.iraq-businessnews.com/2011/07/25/agricultural-oases-to-tackle-desertification/
Agricultural Oases to Tackle Desertification
(Source: AKnews)
The agriculture ministry has started work on a project to create green oases in various parts of the country as a way to combat a increasing desertification due to water shortages, according to a report from AKnews.
The oases will be planted with palm trees and cultivated for agricultural purpose with irritation from wells. The total cost of the projects will be 5 billion Iraqi dinars ($4 million).
“The Ministry has started implementing 7 projects to create large agricultural oases each with an area of 200 to 800 dunums (50-200 hectares) of land” said director of desertification control in the ministry, Mohammed Ghazi al-Akhras.
Five of the oases will be located in the desert areas of Anbar, Iraq’s largest province. Nineveh and Basra provinces will have one oasis each.
Large parts of Iraq that were once productive farmland have already turned into arid desert. The ministry says that between 40 and 50 per cent of what was agricultural land in the 1970s is now a barren wasteland.
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