Tehran, Iran, June 12
By A. Shirazi - Trend:
Over 1.8 million hectares of farmland were equipped with modern irrigation systems in Iran, the chairman of Modern Irrigation Systems Project undertaken by the Agriculture Ministry said.
“Nearly 1.8 million hectares of lands have so far been equipped with modern irrigation systems,” Abbas Zare said, according to a recent report published on the website of the Agriculture Ministry.
Zare added that this has helped save up to 7.9 billion cubic meters of water per year, increase yield by 30 percent and decrease seed, fertilizer and pesticide use by 25 percent each.
The official said that during the first two months of the current fiscal year, started March 20, modern irrigation projects have been carried out in 13,750 hectares, adding that projects are underway in 135,457 hectares of farmlands as well.
Recently, the Iranian deputy agriculture minister said the government has so far allocated over $1 billion to modernize irrigation systems at the farming lands across the country.
“One billion and 50 million USD have been allocated to implement a new irrigation systems project (in agricultural land across the country),” Alimorad Akbari said on May 19.
At present, the overall land surface equipped with under pressure irrigation systems in the country stands at 1.7 million hectares. So 2.8 million hectares (out of the above-mentioned 4.5 million hectares) still remain.
The Sixth Five-Year Development Plan (March 2017-22) stipulates that such systems have to be installed across 600,000 hectares per year.
