Winds of change blow through Iran farming
Iran is expanding dryland farming as a lingering drought is forcing the country to use its resources more prudently and cast off deep-seated wasteful ways.
Most of the aquifers which carried water from under mountains into plains for hundreds of years have hit rock bottom, leaving vast expanses of farmland and orchards bone dry.
The situation has never been so grave, where many overflowing rivers have turned into a dribble, forcing many Iranians to realize that their water resources are not endless as they long assumed.
A late-night soap opera, a hit with many Iranian families, on Saturday dedicated its prime time to tongue-in-cheek subplots about the predicament, with one player boasting how her affluent father had bought her a deep water well in Tehran, leaving the audience in stitches.
However, the situation is far from being a funny story.
A study published in the journal Nature Climate Change in October said the Persian Gulf, which lies between Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Oman, could be too hot to survive by the end of century if carbon dioxide emissions continue at their current pace.
