Ministry of Water Resources announces a meeting with Agriculture Ministry and the Japanese JICA organization

Baghdad-INA
The Ministry of Water Resources announced onSunday, a meeting with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Japanese JICA organization to discuss the formation of water user associations, indicating that these associations will save water and increase agricultural yields.

The Minister of Water Resources, Aoun Diab, said in a press conference held at the ministry's headquarters, with the participation of the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Japanese ambassador to Iraq, and was attended by the reporter of the Iraqi News Agency (INA): "A meeting was held today, with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Japanese embassy, to discuss the formation of water user associations, which is a new method for providing water and increasing agricultural yields,” noting that “this is the result of a long work since 2014 to spread water user associations and follow the latest simple and inexpensive technologies that had a significant impact on the agricultural process, such as the use of laser technology in agricultural lands to level the land in a manner that facilitates irrigation quickly and the use of lawns,” In the cultivation of crops and the mechanical method with inexpensive devices, which gave positive results, and studies that were conducted on an association in Basra Governorate indicated that."

Diab added, "This experience had a significant impact in reducing the amount of water used and increasing agricultural production at the same time, which is a joint effort associations that have a significant impact on the provision of water resources to match Iraq's need for water."

In turn, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Mithaq Abdul Hassan, stated in the press conference, "Today we are present in the Ministry of Water Resources to consult in order to take measures to adapt to water scarcity and climate changes, and today there was a meeting with the Japanese JICA organization, which in turn sponsored in cooperation with the Ministries of Water Resources and Agriculture A project to establish participatory water user associations, which leads to less use of water resources and higher agricultural production."
He explained that "the Japanese JICA organization presented a successful model," pointing out that "there will be direct support for the associations and their subscribers from farmers to develop the project."

For his part, the Japanese ambassador to Iraq, Futoshi Matsumoto, confirmed in a speech during the conference that "we met today with experts in the JICA organization who have been working for years in this field to introduce a new way to use water in agriculture," noting that "the agricultural system in Iraq is currently It uses a lot of water and leads to inefficiency in agricultural production, and Iraq is facing drought and water scarcity, and therefore this project is a new method that achieves an ideal, fast and least expensive solution."

He continued, "The formation of water user associations is an important matter, and we in Japan have been using this experience for 130 years on Japanese farms," explaining that "there are three methods that must be introduced in Iraq to level the lands, reduce water, and produce more agricultural products."