TEHRAN (Iran News) – The head of Iran’s Agricultural Mechanization Development Center said 27,000 tractors were handed over to the country’s farmers in the previous Iranian calendar year 1399 (ended on March 20), IRNA reported.
According to Kambiz Abbasi, the number of new tractors added to the country’s agricultural sector last year increased by 50 percent compared to the preceding year.
Based on the country’s Sixth Five-Year National Development Plan (2016-2021), every year 22,000-24,000 tractors are planned to be handed over to farmers all over the country, the official said.
“However, the demand for such machinery has increased due to the shift in the farmer’s approach and the Agriculture Ministry policies,” Abbasi explained.
Back in April, Abbasi said that some 30 trillion rials (over $714.2 million) has been allocated for mechanization of the country’s agricultural sectors in the current Iranian calendar year.
Abbasi noted that the mentioned funding will be used to supply about 30,000 tractors, 800 combine harvesters, and about 50,000 different agricultural machines and equipment used in various sectors like horticulture, livestock, poultry, and aquaculture to the country’s farmers.
The mentioned funds will be injected into the ninth credit line that has been opened so far for the development of the country’s agricultural mechanization.
The official further 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.
“Our ultimate goal is to inject enough machines into the sector to improve the status and degree of mechanization in the process of agricultural production,” Abbasi said.
According to the official, 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.
