The director of the Desert Oases Project in Anbar, Sami Hussein Ali, announced on Tuesday the launch of a new agricultural initiative involving the cultivation of 200 donums of olive and pistachio trees in Al-Qaim district, as part of efforts to develop desert oases and combat desertification.
Ali said the campaign is being carried out at Al-Obaidi Oasis No. 37, where a new agricultural area has been planted with high-oil-content olive varieties and pistachio trees. The work also includes establishing windbreaks to protect the cultivated land and support the expansion of green cover.
He explained that the project is sponsored by Agriculture Minister Abdul Rahim Al-Shammari, supervised by the Directorate of Forests and Combating Desertification, and supported by the World Food Programme (WFP).
The project also includes rehabilitating two water wells, installing solar power systems, establishing a drip irrigation network, and supplying the necessary agricultural pumps to maintain regular irrigation.
Ali noted that the fieldwork took 27 days to complete, with 22 workers involved in preparing the land and providing the necessary conditions for planting and tree growth.
He emphasized that the initiative is part of a wider strategy to expand green areas and address desertification through modern irrigation methods and renewable energy, with the goal of transforming desert land into sustainable and productive agricultural oases.
