Purpose
The Middle East is a region is known for its unique climate, rich oil resources, and multiple cultures. I am curious on how the special geographic features have influenced the development of Middle Eastern countries, like Iraq, and I am interested the future development on the agriculture and economic in the region.
Introduction
The Middle East located primarily in western Asia, but also in parts of northern Africa and southeastern Europe. The western border of the Middle East is defined by the Mediterranean Sea, where Israel, Lebanon, and Syria rest opposite from Greece and Italy in Europe (Moen, 2017).
The "Middle East" is not a term Middle Easterners gave themselves, but a British term borne of a colonial European perspectives (Tristan, 2019).
The Middle East contains many countries and has multiple cultures. There are political boarders between countries. These are crucial in territorial integrity, which help to maintain regional stability and diplomatic relations.
Landform and Formation
The Middle East is situated at the junction of three major tectonic plates: the African Plate, the Arabian Plate, and the Eurasian Plate. The collision and movement of these plates that occurred over millions of years, have led to the formation of various geological features such as mountains, valleys, and basins. The region's diverse landform include the Zagros and Taurus mountain ranges, the Arabian Peninsula, the Syrian Desert, and the Persian Gulf (Kent, 1978).
Climate
The climate of the Middle East is generally hot and arid and semi-arid desert climate, however, snow and low temperatures are common in the mountains (Admin, 2019).
The annual precipitation in most parts of the Middle East regions is low, resulting in the region being barren and unsuitable for agriculture.
Soil Fertility and Condition
Some common soil types found in the region include desert soils, alluvial soils, and volcanic soils.
The soil in the Middle East has a high soil salinity, which happened when exceed minerals and salts dissolved in water, and can lead to the low productivity of crops. The high salinity soils is due to the arid climate (Topp & Ferre, 2023).
Salinity, caused in part by over irrigation, is a serious problem that affects about two-thirds of the land in Iraq (Woods, 2024).
Widespread desert areas lead to the plenty of desert soils. Desert soils have low fertility sue to their low organic matter content and limited water availability. The Arabian Desert, the second most large desert in the world located in the Middle East (Owen, 1998).
Also, western and southern Iraq is a vast desert region, covering almost two-fifths of the country (Woods, 2024).
Erosion
The sandy soil in the Middle East has an extremely high susceptibility to erosion. First is due to its low organic matter content, which can help to bind soil particles together and increase soil stability. In addition, sandy soil has a low water-holding capacity, therefore the valuable water is not retained in the soil for long periods of time. Besides, the windy conditions in the Middle East can also exacerbate erosion on sandy soils. Wind erosion occurs when soil particles are lifted and carried away by the wind, and sandy soils are particularly susceptible to this type of erosion due to their loose texture.
The easily erodible soil condition brings significant challenges to the agriculture, as it leads to reduced crop yields, which can cause starvation.
Rich Natural Resources
The Middle East accounts for 31% of global oil production, 18% of gas production, 48% of proved oil reserves and 40% of proved gas reserves (Writer, 2023).
The region's oil reserves are the largest in the world, making it a vital player in the global energy market. The great economic interest generated from oil exports has enabled many Middle Eastern countries to invest in infrastructure, education, and social programs.
Iraq is one of the most oil-dependent countries in the world. Over the last decade, oil revenues have accounted for more than 99% of exports, 85% of the government's budgets, and 42% of GDP (World Bank Group, 2022).
However, oil extraction will cause problems. The extraction process, including drilling and transportation, can lead to habitat disruption for wildlife and lead to air and water pollution, posing significant challenges for Middle East's ecosystems and environmental sustainability (Griffin, 2018).
Future
The Middle East face challenges, like the low-yield climate and soil conditions. Also, the running out of oil resources is a major concern that the Middle Eastern countries will loss their largest source of income, resulting in the economic recession.
To address the dual challenge of soil salinity and water shortage, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), has supported ten countries in the region facing severe salinization to improve soil, water and crop management practices with the use of nuclear and isotopic techniques (Broussard, 2020).
The future is hopeful. The agricultural efficiency could be quickly improved through the advancement in technologies that works with the unsuitable climate and soil conditions for cultivation, and the governments' investments researching and development to create new varieties of suitable crops. In the future, the region is poised to become a major player in the global food industry.
Reference
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2. Broussard, E. (2020, June). Nuclear Techniques Support Crop Production on Salt-affected Soils in Middle East. IAEA. https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/nuclear-techniques-support-crop-production-on-salt-affected-soils-in-middle-east
3. Desjardins, J. (2020, June 17). This one map sums up the economy of the Middle East. Visual Capitalist. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/map-sums-economy-middle-east/
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13. Topp, G. C., & Ferré, T. P. A. (2023). Soil Salinity https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/soil-salinity
14. Tristan, P (2019). What Is the Middle East. ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-the-middle-east-2353342
15. Webmaster. (2021, November 21). Soil composition in healthy soils. https://earthsoils.com/soil-composition/
16. Woods, J. (2024, January 5). Iraq | History, Map, flag, population, & Facts. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/place/Iraq/The-northeast
17. World Bank Group. (2022). Iraq Economic Monitor, Fall 2022: A new opportunity to reform. In World Bank. https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/iraq/publication/iraq-economic-monitor-fall-2022-a-new-opportunity-to-reform
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