The Dark Side of Agriculture
How the Middle East's poor agriculture is drying up the land
The Problems
The lack of irrigation in the Middle East has left the land unprepared for drought, and the crop yield usually suffers from the droughts that are and have always been inevitable. When irrigation is used, however, it is often misused. For instance, the Aral Sea has suffered from a problem of improper water distribution. Every day, it shrinks more and more.
Dying Plants
The plants often succumb to the terrible drought.
Dry Middle East
A map of the deserts in the Middle East
Shrinking Sea
The Aral Sea is visibly shrinking due to improper irrigation tactics.
Thinking Ahead
If we as humans neglect to address these issues of both water and land, then many things could happen. The Aral Sea could completely disappear, ending up as barely a puddle in the dry, harsh desert. In fact, if we do nothing about it, it is estimated that it will completely disappear by 2020. Also, the dying off of crops is a huge issue that cannot be ignored. Soon, the ignorance of the drought will result in virtually no crop yield at all. Then only subsistence farming would exist, dropping the primary economic level out of the picture. This would present a huge problem to the Middle Easterners in the future.
How long is it estimated the Aral Sea will last if we do nothing about its drying up?
a) by 2050
b) by 2020
c) It's impossible to tell
d) its already gone
What caused the overall drop in recent farming income?
a) Communism
b) flooding drowning the plants
c) Obamacare
d) bad agricultural practices