BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 12
By Elnur Baghishov - Trend:
In the current Iranian year (began March 21, 2019), so far, 900,000 tons of unhusked rice and 500,000 tons of shelled rice have been harvested in Iran's Khuzestan province, the Director of Khuzestan Agricultural Organization Keykhosrov Changalvayi said, Trend reports via IANA.
The value of the produced rice is minimum 50 trillion rials (almost $1.2 billion), Changalvayi said.
Though the total area of the province's paddies was 206,000 hectares, 147,000 hectares of it suffered certain damage as a result of floods, the director said.
According to the director, 29,000 people are involved in rice cultivation in Khuzestan, and the province's annual demand for rice is about 170,000 tons.
Rice cultivation is not fully banned in Iran, except for Gilan and Mazandaran provinces, but some restrictions have been applied, the official said.
One of these restrictions is on water usage, the director said. Thus, rice can be planted using a modern irrigation system and with less than 7,000 cubic meters of water per hectare, he added.
In the last Iranian year (from March 21, 2018 to March 21, 2019), 260,000 tons of unhusked rice were harvested and 135,000 tons of rice produced in about 62,000 hectares of Khuzestan's paddies.
