Baghdad Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Agriculture and Water Committee Mansour Al-Baiji confirmed: “Iraq’s loss of a large area of agricultural land requires a firm stance by the government to preserve the country’s lands from desertification.”

Al-Baiji demanded, in a statement today, the government to take a firm stance to preserve the agricultural lands in the country from desertification due to the great shortage of water and the lack of sufficient attention to the agricultural sector, which has brought us to what we are today from a major desertification of our agricultural lands.

He referred to the statement of the Presidency of the Republic that Iraq lost a large proportion of green spaces, indicating: “It requires great attention by the competent authorities to preserve the lands, and we should interest in this matter because we are witnessing a significant deterioration and negligence in serving the agricultural sector in the country by the relevant authorities, which is a serious matter that cannot be tolerated at all.

Al-Baiji indicated that: “If the large percentage of desertification in our lands continues to increase without a solution to preserve green lands, this matter will be very dangerous and will cause natural disasters in the near future, as a result of this desertification, which is considered a scourge that eats green and dry land and destroys the country in general.”

He added: “We hope that the Presidency of the Republic, after issuing this report, will have a supportive position to preserve our lands from desertification and work with the concerned authorities to eliminate the phenomenon of desertification in the country, support the agricultural sector on an ongoing basis, and overcome all difficulties to preserve our lands from the scourge of desertification that will destroy green spaces if it continues without a solution to eliminate it as soon as possible.”

Source: National Iraqi News Agency