Farmers forced to sell animals by lack of pasture
KIRKUK, Iraq - A shepherd in a village in Kirkuk was forced to sell most of his sheep because of poor pasture conditions for his animals and out of 300 sheep, only 27 of them are left.
Ahmad Khorshid has had a difficult year because of the drought.
“Everything is expensive now. If fodders were available and cheap like before, I could have survived. No one shepherds because of the lack of pasture,” he told Rudaw’s Hardi Muhammad Ali on Friday.
Khorshid has spent most of his life working as a shepherd in Jabal Bawr village, Kirkuk, but this is the first time he experiences such a lack in adequate pasture for his herd.
“I was only two years old when we came to this village. I am now 74 years old. I have never seen anything like this before,” Khorshid added.
Fodders were not necessary for the past years because farmers used to graze their sheep in a lush green pasture.
“The demand for buying and keeping animals decreased lately and most people sell their own animals because they cannot keep them,” Jawhar Ahmad, a local butcher, said.
Iraq is the fifth-most vulnerable nation in the world to the effects of climate change, including water and food insecurity.
A senior adviser at the Iraqi water resources ministry warned earlier this year that the country's water reserves have decreased by half since last year, due to a combination of drought, lack of rainfall, and declining river levels.
Ahmad Khorshid has had a difficult year because of the drought.
“Everything is expensive now. If fodders were available and cheap like before, I could have survived. No one shepherds because of the lack of pasture,” he told Rudaw’s Hardi Muhammad Ali on Friday.
Khorshid has spent most of his life working as a shepherd in Jabal Bawr village, Kirkuk, but this is the first time he experiences such a lack in adequate pasture for his herd.
“I was only two years old when we came to this village. I am now 74 years old. I have never seen anything like this before,” Khorshid added.
Fodders were not necessary for the past years because farmers used to graze their sheep in a lush green pasture.
“The demand for buying and keeping animals decreased lately and most people sell their own animals because they cannot keep them,” Jawhar Ahmad, a local butcher, said.
Iraq is the fifth-most vulnerable nation in the world to the effects of climate change, including water and food insecurity.
A senior adviser at the Iraqi water resources ministry warned earlier this year that the country's water reserves have decreased by half since last year, due to a combination of drought, lack of rainfall, and declining river levels.