THE SPATIAL RELATIONSHIP OF THE DECLINE IN RICE CULTIVATION WITH DESERTIFICATION

The problem of desertification is one of the human problems and has become one of the most serious challenges facing it at the present time. Desertification means the deterioration of lands in arid semi-arid and dry semi-humid areas as a result of various factors, including climatic differences and human activities.. Man has played the main role in exacerbating this problem from Through its wrong practices in the exploitation of resources... Iraq is exposed to a real problem of desertification, which has become a threat to food security significantly through the decline in the productivity of the land due to the exacerbation of the problem of salinization, waterlogging of the soil and the deterioration of vegetation cover, and consequently the moving sand dunes that bury agricultural and irrigation projects, railways and cities . In this research, we try to address the impact of desertification on the decline of rice crop cultivation in Maysan Governorate, as well as studying the spatial variation of rice cultivation in Maysan Governorate and its relationship to the area of desertification and the spatial change of rice cultivation between different years. Correlation, regression and logarithmic transformation using spss and gis programs in producing search maps and reaching a set of conclusions and recommendations.