BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 9
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
The Ministry of Agriculture Jihad of Iran is implementing a number of plans to increase cotton production in the current Iranian year (from March 21, 2021 through March 20, 2022), the executor of the cotton plan of Ministry of Agriculture Jihad of Iran, Ebrahim Hezarjaribi told Trend.
The official noted that one of these plans is that processing plants and textile mills will be aligned with the cotton industry, which will help increase the cotton production and provide technical support to farmers.
Hezarjaribi added that the government supports farmers by importing quality cotton seeds.
"If in the previous years 2,300 kg of cotton was harvested per hectare, then this figure increased to 2,700 kg. One of the reasons for the increase is the provision of better quality seeds to farmers," said Hezarjaribi.
“Another plan is to increase the units of harvesting machinery. In Iran, cotton is traditionally harvested by hand. This increases harvesting costs, delays harvesting, and makes it difficult to find seasonal workers. In order to solve this problem, Iran started import of combine harvesters. About 12 combines are expected to be imported this year," he said, adding that Iran is also producing harvesters domestically.
According to him, cotton harvesting in Iran will start on August 22 in the north-eastern regions (including Golestan Province), and will last by the end of autumn. Due to the shortage of workers, the cotton harvest may take longer. Iran's Razavi Khorasan, Golestan, Fars, Ardabil, North Khorasan and South Khorasan provinces are the main provinces dealing with cotton production in Iran.
Hezarjaribi emphasized that Iran produced about 270,000 tons of cotton over the last Iranian year (from March 20, 2020 through March 20, 2021). It provides about 30 percent of the fiber needed by Iranian textile mills. About 70,000 tons of cotton were also imported to Iran within last Iranian year.
“Despite that cotton production is expected to increase in the current Iranian year (from March 21, 2021 through March 20, 2022), there will be no increase in the production due to drought, and last year's volume is expected to be reached,” he said.
---
Follow the author on Twitter:@BaghishovElnur
