BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 10
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
About $1.05 billion has been spent on developing modern irrigation systems so far under the current government in Iran (the current government came to power in Iran in August 2013), said Iranian Deputy Minister of Agriculture Jihad Alimorad Akbari said, Trend reports citing the ministry.
According to Akbari, 22.2 trillion rials (about $528 million) were allocated for work on water and land projects in the current Iranian year (began March 20, 2020).
Akbari added that 100 million euros will be spent on providing the areas with pressure irrigation systems.
The deputy minister said that Iran has 18 million hectares of agricultural land, and only 1.8 million hectares of it are suitable for cultivation, as the rest is useless due to salinity and other reasons.
Increasing of soil organic matter helps to decrease water consumption by 30 percent and increase agricultural production by 40 percent, Akbari noted.
"Iran is cooperating with international organizations such as FAO and others in the field of introducing modern irrigation technology and in other agricultural sectors. Currently, two projects are being implemented in this area," he said.
The deputy minister added that one of these projects is the SIRDAP (Center on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific) project which is executed with an investment of $500 billion in the Qazvin Province.
Akbari said that the other project is the CCP project (Committee on Commodity Problems) project, which began last year with an investment of $500,000.
