In Iraq, the national icon date palm is valiantly resisting drought

Barefoot on the rough trunk of a palm tree, my back wedged in Wearing a metal and fabric harness, Ali Abed begins climbing to cut bunches of dates. In Iraq, the true national icon tree is valiantly trying to resist the drought.

Once nicknamed the country of “30 million palm trees”, Iraq has seen its centuries-old culture threatened by conflicts, notably the war with neighboring Iran (1980-1988), before the challenges of climate change arose in a Middle East affected by repeated droughts.

In the still lush countryside of central Iraq, in the Al-Qasim region, hundreds of palm trees stand tall and majestic, near vineyards and orchards.

Harvesting dates in a field in the village of Janajah, in the province of Babylon, on September 4, 2024 in Iraq © AFP – AHMAD AL-RUBAYE

In this harvest season in the province of Babylon, the branches bend under the heavy bunches of yellow or red dates.

Rising at dawn to avoid the scorching temperatures, the climbers hoist themselves up using only the strength of their arms, supported by a harness, tightening a rope around the trunks.

“Last year, orchards and palm groves were thirsty, we almost lost them. This year, thanks to God, we had good quantities of water and the harvest is good,” says Mr. Abed, a 36-year-old farmer from the village of Biramana.

Harvesting dates in a field in the village of Janajah, in the province of Babylon, on September 4, 2024 in Iraq © AFP – AHMAD AL-RUBAYE

At the top, climbers pick only ripe dates to fill a basket, which is then slid to the ground where it is emptied.

The harvest is placed in basins, loaded onto a van.

But, Mr. Abed acknowledges, the quantities he now harvests are far from the formerly lavish level. “Half,” he explains, before it was “more than 12 tons” compared to “4 or five tons” today.

He complains in particular of insufficient commitment from the State, estimating that public insecticide spraying campaigns, carried out using agricultural aircraft, do not meet the needs.

– “Paradise” lost –

For more than a decade, however, Iraq has been working to revive the date palm, a true national symbol and economic treasure.

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A young man sorts freshly picked dates in a warehouse in the village of Janajah, in Babylon province, on September 4, 2024 in Iraq © AFP – AHMAD AL-RUBAYE

The authorities, but also influential religious institutions, have launched programs and megaprojects to encourage plantations and increase the number of trees.

A commitment that allowed, “for the first time since the 1980s”, to increase to “more than 22 million” the number of date palms in Iraq, after it had fallen to eight million, rejoiced in August the spokesperson for the Ministry of Agriculture, quoted by the official agency INA.

Because during the Iran-Iraq war, on the border between the two countries, Baghdad had razed entire areas of palm groves, extending for kilometers, to prevent enemy infiltration.

Today, the date is the country's second largest export product, just after oil, and brings in more than 120 million dollars (around 108 million euros) annually, according to the World Bank.

Freshly picked dates in a warehouse in the village of Janajah, Babylon province, on September 4, 2024 in Iraq © AFP – AHMAD AL-RUBAYE

In 2023, the country exported some 650,000 tons of dates, according to official statistics.

In the surroundings of the village of Janajah, here and there appear decapitated palm trees, others topped with dried branches.

“All these palm trees that you see there are dead because of the drought, the whole region is suffering from it,” laments farmer Maitham Talib.

“Before we had water, people irrigated abundantly. Now we need complicated machines,” adds the fifty-year-old, who is helping with the morning harvest.

Aerial view of date palms in the village of Janajah, in Babylon province, on September 4, 2024 in Iraq © AFP – AHMAD AL-RUBAYE

Considered by the UN as one of the five countries in the world most exposed to certain effects of climate change, Iraq experienced four consecutive years of drought before benefiting this winter from relatively more generous rains.

In addition to rising temperatures and irregular and declining rainfall, the country is suffering from a drastic drop in the flow of its rivers, attributed by the authorities to dams built upstream by its influential neighbors, Turkey and Iran.

Kifah Talib, 42, also denounces the ravages of the drought. Before, “it seemed like paradise: apple trees, pomegranates, citrus fruits and vines, everything grew,” he recalls.

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