From riches to rags in Iraqs Fertile Crescent

this muddy trickle was once flowing stream with the decline of the abasia river 150 km south of Baghdad Farmers have seen their fields sapped of life had 125 hectares of land every year planted rice we had really good output about 700 tons but last year and the year before that only harvested one ke of rice Iraq's fertile cresen lies between the Euphrates and Tigress Rivers it was once the country's Bread Basket but with little rain water levels have dropped and Upstream development projects in Turkey and Iran have further dried up the land onethird of Iraqis depend on Farming and the government is struggling to cope with severe water shortage we're doing everything we can to better share out the water in the region but we must also use the water we do have better half century ago Iraq was an exporter now it Imports 90% of its rice the country is trying hard to limit waste and develop an effective irrigation system bringing back to life these parched lands