TEHRAN (Iran News) Mahmoud Siadat, head of the Iran–Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce, said that official recognition of the Taliban government—referred to by its authorities as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan—would significantly strengthen commercial relations and provide greater confidence for long-term investments and private-sector engagement.

His remarks followed recent statements by Alireza Bigdeli, Iran’s ambassador in Kabul, who indicated that Tehran may soon formally recognize the Taliban-led administration.

In an interview, Siadat said there is no certainty yet regarding recognition, but noted that Iran’s relations with Afghanistan’s current authorities have steadily improved across multiple sectors.

“Fortunately, relations between Iran and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan are improving day by day in various fields,” he said.

According to Siadat, official recognition by Tehran would create greater stability and reassurance for private-sector actors seeking to engage in Afghanistan. This would be particularly important for long-term projects such as railway connectivity linking Iran to China through Afghan territory, as well as major public and private investment initiatives.

“When it comes to long-term contracts and strategic infrastructure projects, recognition would make it easier to rely on agreements and move forward with confidence,” he said.

Siadat described current economic relations between the two countries as strong and friendly, but emphasized that formal diplomatic recognition would further enhance both the perception and practical realities of cooperation.

Citing Iranian customs data, he said Iran’s annual exports to Afghanistan exceed $2.5 billion. However, Afghan customs authorities report even higher figures, estimating imports from Iran at more than $3 billion per year.

In total, Siadat estimated that Iran’s combined exports of goods and services to Afghanistan amount to approximately $3.5 billion annually.

By contrast, Afghanistan’s exports to Iran remain limited, totaling around $100 million per year.

A significant portion of Iran’s exports to Afghanistan consists of technical and engineering services, which Siadat said exceed $500 million annually. However, he acknowledged that there is no comprehensive database tracking these activities.

He attributed the lack of accurate data to insufficient government support and incentives. In the past, Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization provided bonuses of up to five percent of contract values to exporters of technical and engineering services, encouraging companies to formally register their overseas activities.

“Today, not only are there no incentives, but exporters are concerned about potential penalties, taxes, and social security obligations,” Siadat said. “As a result, many prefer not to register their activities.”

He added that Afghanistan’s most pressing needs go beyond goods and include technical services, consultancy, knowledge transfer, and technology—areas in which Iran has considerable capacity but has underperformed in terms of policy support.

Looking ahead, Siadat highlighted agriculture as a key area for expanding bilateral cooperation. He said Iran has already imported cotton, legumes, and certain agricultural products from Afghanistan this year, along with limited quantities of zinc ore, lead, and other minerals.

However, industrial and mining imports from Afghanistan currently face logistical and structural challenges. As a result, Iranian policymakers and business leaders are increasingly turning their attention to agricultural cooperation.

“We are seeking to implement contract farming in Afghanistan,” Siadat said. “Given that more than 50 percent of Afghanistan’s economy and workforce is engaged in agriculture, livestock, fisheries, and horticulture, this sector offers significant potential.”

Under contract farming arrangements, Iranian companies would invest in Afghan agricultural production, providing technology, expertise, and guaranteed purchase agreements. The harvested products—such as legumes, meat, and other agricultural goods—would then be exported to Iran.

Siadat suggested that such cooperation could reduce Iran’s dependence on more distant suppliers.

“Instead of importing legumes from Canada, we can source them from Afghanistan,” he said. “Through contract farming and the transfer of knowledge and technology, we can import agricultural products and meat from Afghanistan in a structured and mutually beneficial way.”

Siadat also noted that remittances sent by Afghan nationals residing in Iran likely exceed the value of Iran’s total exports to Afghanistan. Millions of Afghans live and work in Iran, sending portions of their earnings back home to support their families.

This flow of funds, he said, underscores the deep economic interdependence between the two neighbors.

While formal recognition of the Taliban government by Iran has not yet been confirmed, Siadat made clear that such a move would mark a turning point in economic relations. It would not only solidify existing trade flows but also pave the way for expanded infrastructure projects, agricultural investment, and long-term strategic cooperation.

For now, trade between the two countries remains robust despite the absence of formal recognition. But business leaders argue that a clearer diplomatic framework could unlock further growth—particularly in sectors such as rail connectivity, agriculture, engineering services, and cross-border investment.

As discussions continue, Iran appears poised to deepen its economic engagement with Afghanistan, with contract farming emerging as a central pillar of its evolving strategy.

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The Ministry of Agriculture has even been boasting about the cultivation of this highly water-intensive crop.

Growing rice in lands other than those bordering the Caspian Sea is like shooting oneself in the foot.

The cultivation of rice, which started more than 20 years ago, has dried up rivers and led to the depletion of underground waters in some places. To compensate for water shortage, farmers are digging deeper and deeper wells to irrigate paddy fields.

The massive consumption of surface waters to irrigate paddy fields or other water-intensive crops like onion or watermelon has even disrupted the ecosystem in certain areas.

However, officials, especially those in the ministries of agriculture and energy, are either ignorant of the short-term and long-term consequences of this move or they are purely careless.

It is also possible that agriculture ministers want to take pride that during their management of the ministry the production of rice increased in the country.

Iran is an arid and semi-arid country, and during history Iranians had learned how to manage water resources. But now that Iran is seeing less precipitation and more droughts due to climate change farmers are being allowed to grow crops that need lots of water.

The official IRNA news agency published a series of photos on September 12, 2020, showing that farmers cultivate rice in the Qasr-e Qand region of Sistan-Baluchestan, which is famous as a desert province. IRNA said rice is cultivated twice a year in the region.

Even rice cultivation in northern provinces of Iran must be regulated. Mohsen Fallah Niazi, a native of Mazandaran province, says some farmers cultivate rice two times a year in Mazandaran despite the fact that underground waters are going down more each year.

The price of rice in comparison to other crops in the market is so enticing that it is very difficult to convince farmers to turn to other alternative crops. It is so profitable that some farmers dig wells without receiving a permit from the Ministry of Energy.

However, it seems that officials have no plans to ban the cultivation of rice and other water-intensive crops. Probably, it is customary that officials don’t try to resolve an evolving problem before it turns into a crisis like what has happened in Khuzestan province.

Now, in addition to droughts and water transfer, part of the water shortage in Khuzestan province is due to the fact that farmers who live along the rivers drain waters that run into Khuzestan. These farmers who mostly live in the mountainous Zagros regions use these waters to irrigate paddy fields or other water-intensive crops.

The excessive extraction of underground water resources and rivers may continue until a time that officials find themselves unable to even provide potable water for citizens in certain areas.

Whatever difficult it may be, it is urgent to convince farmers to stop growing rice. A more delay to stop its cultivation, farmers will even lose the chance to grow crops that their ancestors had been doing for centuries.

To do this, first, it is necessary to educate the farmers about the dire consequences of this model of farming and then offer profitable alternative crops. Even if this approach fails to convince farmers to turn to alternative crops, the responsible bodies should introduce penalties.

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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani ordered the rollout of the project on Thursday using a video conference call from his office in Tehran.

The lands located near the border with Pakistan in southeastern Iran are spread across 729 villages mostly in Zabol County in the province of Sistan and Baluchestan.

Agriculture minister Kazem Khavazi said that irrigation project would boost food security in Iran’s largest but poorest province.

Rouhani ordered the launch of over 4,600 agricultural projects on Thursday as part of his weekly inauguration campaigns.

His website said the projects had cost over 81 trillion rials (over $338 million) in spending, adding that they would create a total of 42,300 new jobs across the country.

The projects included nearly 4,000 drip irrigation systems, some 571 livestock and poultry units as well as a total of 150 fishery and aquaculture projects.

Khavazi said drip irrigation systems is now installed at nearly 2.5 million hectares of farming lands across Iran, almost double the area reported in 2013.

He said Iran had also reached a point of full self-sufficiency in manufacturing parts and components of irrigation systems inside the country.

On fisheries and aquaculture, the minister said output in the sector had seen a four-fold increase in eight years to 49,000 metric tons a year, adding that Iran is currently earning nearly $0.5 billion a year from fisheries exports.

Khavazi said Iran is now a net exporter of butter, a product for which the country used to spend big for 50,000 tons of imports each year.

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Iran’s Agriculture Deputy Minister Elaborates the Development of the Market-Oriented Farming Systems in the Territory of the Border Rivers Basins

According To Iran News, Hossein Shirzad, who is also the CEO of the Central Organization for Rural Cooperatives of Iran (CORC), in a technical interview made comments on the importance of the development of the market-oriented farming systems in the territory of the Border Rivers basins.

Q1. What is the distinctive point between the farming systems in the territory of the border rivers basins and other regions?

A1. The most significant difference among the border river basins and other regions is the existence of the common basic production resources. Historically, the borders had been drawn based on the political-military concerns rather than geographical homogeneity. Therefore, the ecological and production resources have been divided among the border regions of the different countries. The oil and gas, water and soil, marine as well as the underline water resources are of the most important of the joint production resources of the border regions. This has provoked serious conflicts over the exploitation of common resources, especially in the Middle East.

Among the joint production resources, the water resources matter more than the other ones due to the slow renewability. The investment of Turkey on the controlling and reserving of the common water resources has brought about a strategic advantage for the country in ration to Iraq and Syria. Meanwhile, the bloody wars between Jordan and the Jerusalem occupying regime is another instance of the importance of controlling the border water resources.

Iran’s water resource territory is experiencing highly competitive diplomacy, as well. Currently about 10% of the State’s renewable water resource (about 130 billion CC) is procured from the common basins with the neighboring countries. However, the oil and gas resources are prioritized to the other resources at now, but it is anticipated by decreasing the mentioned resources, shortly, the significance of water resources will be double increases.

The second specification of the border farming systems is the structural and spatial characteristic of the border areas. The production of the border regions is totally market-oriented. Furthermore the dwellers in the border regions share many cultural and linguistic common specifications with neighboring countries. They can access the neighboring countries easier than their countries. The geographical isolation combined with the national and regional identity has created a paradox for the dwellers of the borderline regions in the historical conflicts. Naturally, these conflicts should be resolved through the development of the farming systems based on the integrated national identity.

Q2.What is the basic pivots of the new farming systems in the border river basins? Will they be developed based on the old experiences of the rural production   cooperatives or agro-joint stock companies?

It is worth mentioning that the exploitation planning for border water resources is not a new phenomenon. However, the best pattern should be developed based on the mutual understanding of the neighboring countries on the joint exploitation and registering the water rights in each country’s territory. Furthermore, it should be accepted by the national water and soil doctrine. Aras and Atrak rivers are the distinctive samples of this pattern. Notwithstanding, in some border regions,  applying this doctrine is impeded due to the geomorphologic, political, or spatial heterogeneity between the two-sided of the borders. The Project of 46000 hectares of Sistan and of the river basins of Khuzestan is the most significant examples of these regions. Development of the farming systems in such regions requires adopting distinctive approaches.

Based on the reductionism, the first approach recommends establishing huge concrete structures including dams, tunnels, and transfer facilities. This pattern suffers many critical deficits consisting high of a cost, environmental damages, and triggering home and foreign conflicts in the border regions.

The second approach is the territory comprehensive approach based on the hydraulic farming systems. Observing the rights of the whole stakeholders, the second approach emphasizes first on the propulsion role of water for the regional development, second on the virtual transfer of water to the home country by considering the environmental concerns and international commitments.

From the macro viewpoint, this approach brings about three outcomes including reducing the conflicts originating from the border dwellers’ dual identity, acceleration of their racial and ethnic integrity through reduction of the aftermath of the social and economic isolation, and paving the way of sustainable use of outgoing border water. Performing this approach demands to have a strategically spatial program for development. This program should observe many critical aspects including the economic capacity monitoring, feasibility studies based on the cropping, horticulture, cultivation patterns and accurate calculation of the agricultural inputs (water, labor force, soil…).

Q3. What is the strategically planning framework for development of farming system in the border regions?

The spatial planning refers to the practices used for effective population distribution, fair regional and spatial equilibrium and logical organizing the economic activities in which led to a balanced development among economic prosperity and environmental protection. The spatial planning has four levels including international, national, regional and local .Albeit from the orientation point; it could be problem-oriented, future-oriented and goal-oriented. Considering the geostrategic specification of the border regions and strategic values of the joint water resources, the logical planning framework for development of farming systems in such area refers to a strategically and problem-oriented  planning at the regional level . By region, we mean the basin and neighboring areas of the border river. Obviously, the first priority is solving the problem of the comprehensive development of the water resources with adopting developmental exploitation approach. The form of transferring, the soil quality, land tenure management, ecologic variability, environmental aspects, and hydrology are of the second priority.  The strength point of this framework is observing the sustainable ecologic of the farming systems. The Resiliency of agriculture is decreasing slowly but constantly, because of the aftermaths of environmental crisis and improper cattle breeding and cropping. This will lead to collapsing the civil societies in the rural border regions. No government can afford to face these challenges without the farmers’ community participation. The resilience of the border farming systems should be boosted through climate-change flexibility. The development of the private agro-industry corporations with the joint venture of the banking system could resolve this problem. The vast integrated cropping, linking to the industry , development of the food processing systems, appropriate  financial management of theses large farming system , hiring seasonal and stable workers , constant applying the modern know-how  could led to develop sustainable farming systems. Meanwhile applying the industrial management to make a distinction among working and capital factors, expertise-based work-dividing, fundraising for large horticultural, cropping, and livestock projects is necessary. Cultivating modified seeds, rearing improved cattle and poultry races, and governmental controlling the cultivation patterns of some market-oriented crops could be named as the effective solution of farming systems in the border regions. Furthermore, the establishment of the agile and public organization (Like the development organizations of the 60th  decades including the Khuzestan, Ghazvin, and Jiroft development organization) is required to force the total new structures to only serve the resident farmers in the territory of the border rivers basins. These organizations should be developed based on the viewpoints of the skilled advisors, cheap credit, and partnership of the private sector.

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Reza Navvabi told Iran Daily that if the government provides support, the grounds will be ready for doubling rosewater exports during the current Iranian year (to end March 20, 2021).

He added that Kashan produces 60 percent of Mohammadi roses and 70 percent of rosewater and herbal essences in the country.

The Kashan region includes the cities of Kashan, Qamsar, Niasar, and Barzok, he said.

At present, 70,000 people are involved in farming, preparing and production of rosewater in the Kashan region, he added.

Kashan is the hub for producing herbal essences across the country, he said.

Over 225 herbal plants have been identified in the Kashan region, which has a warm, dry, cold and mountainous climate, he added.

Navvabi said that Mohammadi rose harvest from Kashan farms began on April 20 and will continue until June 30.

Given this year’s pleasant weather and appropriate precipitation rate, Mohammadi rose production will rise 1.5-fold over the year before, he said.

He put the Mohammadi rose output at 6,000 tons last year, adding the figure would rise to 10,000 tons this year.

Also, rosewater production stood at 14,000 tons last year, which would rise to 20,000 tons this year, he added.

Currently, a majority of Iranian Mohammadi rose export markets include the Persian Gulf littoral states, Germany, Spain, Southeast Asian countries and China.

China is a new market which has become acquainted with rosewater properties in the past three years and imports this product.

On the necessity to introduce rosewater to the world, he said currently rosewater is not a known product in many parts of the world. This is while rosewater has numerous uses in various food industries such as ice cream and cookie factories.

Navvabi continued that Iran ranks first in the production of rosewater worldwide. It ranks second in the production of the essence of Mohammadi rose after Bulgaria, he added.

“Bulgaria presents all of its Mohammadi rose production in the form of the essence to the market, while we present our product in the form of rosewater.”

On high the value of the essence of Mohammadi rose, he said that each kilogram of essence is sold around 700 million rials ($166,666), which is more precious than rosewater.

The essence of Mohammadi rose is extracted only in the cities of Kashan and Kerman, he said.

He put the country’s essence output at 250 kilograms, predicting that it would reach 300 kilograms this year.

The head of Rosewater and Herbal Essences Union in Kashan said currently, the production of essence is meager compared to high Mohammadi rose output, adding that the essence extraction machine should be imported from Bulgaria and Turkey with government support.

Navvabi continued that due to the spread of the coronavirus, the labor force for harvesting roses and producing rosewater has become more expensive.

Also, rosewater consumption has decreased across the country because a large amount of rosewater used to be consumed in making ice creams and cookies.

In addition, rosewater is usually used in religious ceremonies and graveyards.  Currently, due to the pandemic, gatherings have been banned in many places. As a result, rosewater consumption has dropped significantly.

He said rosewater festivals and ceremonies used to be held concurrently with the harvest season of Mohammadi rose and the rosewater festival in the Kashan region annually.

“This year, due to the coronavirus outbreak, the rosewater festival is not held. All hotels and restaurants are closed and the number of tourists, who used to come to Kashan in this season, has dropped significantly.”

“Kashan used to earn close to 40 percent of revenues from selling rosewater and herbal essences from tourists who visited the region annually. This year, we don’t have this revenue,” he concluded.

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In a meeting of agro-economist and CEO of the national unions of agro-cooperatives on ” necessities of the contract farming “, Hossein Shirzad who is also the CEO of the Central Organization for Rural Cooperatives of Iran (CORC), said since CORC enjoys the appropriate legal capacity, organizational chart and technical background for contract farming, it can be used by the rural and agricultural network to create a symmetric symbiotic between agriculture and industry.

Referring to the outstanding achievements of using contract farming in Europe, Latin America, North America, and the Middle East, he said that contract farming can bring about mutual profit, fair sharing of costs and risks incurred by marketing, storage and selling of the crops for both parties. Noting to the experience of India, Ghazaghestan, and France in applying contract farming, the official asserted that improving contract farming, however, requires making fundamental changes in the banking mechanism, including the interest rate, loan-giving procedure, and guarantee.
“Nowadays, the dichotomy of subsistence farming and industrial farming has diminished by the aid of contract farming throughout the world.

The largest trade partners of rural cooperatives union in the developed countries are the association of the grain exporters, big chain-stores, hypermarkets, and food multi-national corporations and startups.” Shirzad added.
Today 82% of Cucumis Sativus, 41% of Basmati rice, 38% greenhouse tomato and red pepper, 25 % of peanut and 37% of hazelnut are produced throughout the world by the contract farming. Meanwhile, the world huge production of Durum wheat and more than 69% of certified seeds is due to improving contract farming.

In the Eurasia district, contract farming means to select appropriate farms, employing professional labor force, using qualified seeds, professional machinery and applying accessible and economical inputs and transportation system. Accompanied by the supportive pricing mechanism, applying these factors will lead to boosting farmers’ income and improving their living standards”.

The development of contract farming is dependent upon to develop a modern pricing body that adopts an appropriate pricing policy based on the cultivation pattern and land-use systems. Currently, the national farming system suffers from a lack of such a reference body.

Hence the crops are perishable in their very nature, accessing emerging and sustainable markets necessitate creating a close link and cooperation among farmers, food processors, and exporters.

Elaborating the advantages of the contract farming, Shirzad added by contract farming t, farmers have no concern about price fluctuations, they can focus on boosting yield, therefore the long term capital raising and mid-term risk distribution will be facilitated. However, the agriculture system needs a supportive judiciary system as well as an insurance system. We ask the parliament to support all stakeholders by approving supportive Rules and Act for farmers.

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