Iraq’s Farmers Pushed off Land as Drought and Heat Cripple Crops

Qasim Abdul Wahad, an Iraqi small-scale farmer, looks at his dying tomato crops on his farm near the village of Abu Al-Khaseeb in southern Iraq’s Basra governorate, March 6, 2022. (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

Until a few years ago, farming in southern Iraq was "as lucrative as oil", Qasim Abdul Wahad remembers, and his one-hectare farm plot in the governorate of Basra produced enough to feed his family of eight.

Now dust kicks up under his feet as he walks through his land, after worsening extreme heat and drought linked to climate change killed 90% of his winter crops, including all of his okra and eggplant.