Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 21
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
Iran’s barley output meets some 80 percent of the domestic demand and the country needs to cover almost 30 percent of the grain consumption via imports, Kaveh Khaksar, director of Grains and Staples Department at the Ministry of Agriculture, said.
Iran’s barley production reached 3.8 million tons during the current year, Khaksar said, the Agriculture Ministry reported.
The Islamic Republic needs over 5 million tons of barley annually, he said, adding that the ministry eyes to increase the grain output.
Some 1.75 million hectares of land in Iran is planed to go under barley farming this crop year (started Sept. 21, 2016), Khaksar said.
So far 842,000 hectares have gone under the barley cultivation, he said, adding that 395,300 hectares of this will be irrigated and 446,400 hectares will be rain-fed.
The ministry has offered to purchase the crop from farmers at a guaranteed price of 10,920 rials per each kilogram (each USD makes 32,059 rials based on official rate).