The head of Iran’s Agricultural Mechanization Development Center said since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21) over 60 trillion rials (about $1.428 billion) has been invested for agricultural mechanization, which is 2.5 times more than the figure for the previous year’s same period.
According to Kambiz Abbasi, the Agricultural Mechanization Development Center allocated 40 trillion rials (about $925.38 million) of facilities to farmers in the mentioned period to be spent on mechanization, IRNA reported.
Abbasi noted that the increase in investment in agricultural mechanization in the current year has been unprecedented, adding: “Simultaneously with the growth of investment in this sector during the current year, we have also had some success in supplying agricultural machinery to farmers, so that during the first eight months of this year (March 21-November 21), we have delivered or are delivering more than 21,000 tractors to farmers.”
Referring to the allocation of seven trillion rials (about $166.6 million) of facilities to provide agricultural equipment to farmers in the second half of the current fiscal year, he said: “These facilities are allocated only to supply agricultural equipment in the agricultural, horticultural, livestock, poultry and aquaculture sectors.”
The official had earlier noted that the Agricultural Mechanization Development Center plans to increase the country’s agricultural mechanization coefficient to 2.3 horsepower per hectare in the current year.
Iran’s agricultural mechanization coefficient has currently reached 1.65 horsepower per hectare.
According to Abbasi, the Agriculture Ministry has been allocating a separate credit line for the mechanization of the agriculture sector every year, so that since the Iranian calendar year of 1392 so far, nine credit lines have been opened for this sector.
Statistics show that there is an annual demand for 25 trillion rials (about $595 million) of facilities for the development and modernization of agricultural machinery.
Since over 95 percent of the technology and knowledge in this area is domestic, despite the U.S. sanctions most of the goals in the mechanization of various agriculture sectors will be achieved without any problems, according to Abbasi.
In the past forty years, since the Islamic Revolution, Iran has witnessed a remarkable improvement in various sectors and the agriculture industry has been one of the areas in which the country has undergone huge development.
Implementing billions of dollars worth of development, research, and educational projects across the country is an indication of the significant improvements in this sector.
