Hossein Shirzad, who is also the CEO of the Central Organisation for Rural cooperatives of Iran(CORC), said on the 21st of April,2019 a herd of Murcia goat was imported from Spain to Yazd province. Aiming to create a valuable genetic reservoir of the lightweight cattle, enhancing the productivity of the livestock inputs, supporting small and sustainable rural enterprises, and improving the goat dairy industry, the first meeting of the coordination committee was held in the Yazd province.

“Farming goat kids in the certificated systems is one of the technical procedure that is persuing by the partnership of the livestock farming unions of Yazd, Taft, and Jameahe Gostar agro-cooperatives. Meanwhile, the whole capital of this project is supplied by the cooperative sector,” he added.

Having economic herd indexes, including high yield, long lactation duration, short adolescence period, lactation of the high content of fat, protein, and lactose as well as climate compatibility, Murcia goat farming project, could enhance food security, regionally and nationwide.

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Underlying the naming of the new Persian Year, as the year of the Leap Production by the Supreme Leader Of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hossein Shirzad who is CEO of the Central Organisation of The Rural Cooperatives of Iran (CORC) asserted aiming to improve the farmers’standard lives, CORC has envisaged three main goals of the trade.

Enhancing the home trade, national market regulating and enhancing foreign trade are three goals of the trade department of the rural and agricultural cooperatives “, Shirzad added.”

Boosting the direct crop supplying, development of internal steering committee, and enhancing systematic monitoring of unions’accounting is the main strategy for realizing the first goal that Shirzad enumerated, he also said by designing the new application, the systematic and safe transactions among cooperatives and unions will be developed.

Realizing the crop market regulating requires establishing clear and effective ties among internal relevant bodies including agro-cooperatives, the market regulating deputy of the agriculture ministry that will lead to removing the middlemen”, the official added.

Explaining the strategies of CORC to improve the foreign trade, Shirzad referred to boosting ties among foreign trade departments of the public and private sectors, development of export-oriented agriculture, and giving export incentives as the main strategies. Meanwhile, he went on, we should encourage the farmers to produce a safe crop by giving incentives. Signing MOU between border provinces to coordinated exporting to the neighboring countries will boost foreign trade, as well.

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Hossein Shirzad who is also the chairman of the Board of the Directors of the Central Organization of the Rural Cooperatives of Iran (CORC), said organizing the cropping procedures, good agriculture practice, and applying modern agro-technologies through the development of the farmers’ organization constitute the existential philosophy of the CORC.

“The ultimate goal of CORC is to facilitate the sustainable and integrated development of rural areas and agriculture cooperatives. CORC is realizing the above-mentioned goal through the development of the rural and agricultural cooperatives or other forms of the Farmers’ organizations as well as enhancing the efficiency of the existing cooperatives. Procurement of agricultural inputs and machinery, production, purchasing, collecting, packing, processing, and marketing of the crops accompanied by the social empowerment of the farmers are the main activities of the CORC.”, the official said.

Explaining the legal background of the CORC, Shirzad implied that according to the Act of the Rural Cooperative Societies, enacted in 1972, a cooperative is developed through joining the natural and legal entities together to the end of meeting the common needs and improving the social and economic welfare by self-help and mutual aid. Meanwhile, he went on, according to the Article 73 of the above-mentioned Act and the Statutes of the Rural and agricultural cooperatives, farmers,  sericulture farmers, apiculture farmers, and rural craftsmen develop a cooperative to meet the common and personal needs including purchasing staple goods, procurement of the professional facilities including fodder, poultry feed, agricultural machinery, and transportation facilities, accommodation, drinking and agricultural water for common exploitation.

“Based on the Act of the Rural Cooperative Societies, enacted in 1972, there have been developed 2780 rural cooperatives by now.  About 4.6 million of farmers by membership in these cooperatives are enjoying their services.

The rural and agricultural cooperatives with their relevant unions, as the executive arms of the agricultural sector, are providing different services in the field of the agriculture value chain”, he added.

Describing the hierarchical structure of the rural and agricultural cooperatives, he said that the Central Union of the Rural Production Cooperatives (CURPC) has 30 provincial unions with 683 members.

Elaborating the structural data of the specialized cooperatives, the official referred to the egg-laying chicken agro-cooperatives &unions, he mentioned that this union has 17 members as the provincial members while the individual members of these cooperatives throughout the country amount 1184 farmers. Meanwhile, the central union of the broiler chicken agro-cooperative with 27 provincial unions provides service to 21946 poultry farmers organized in 270 agro cooperatives nationwide.

Central Union of Iran Animal Farmers (CUIFA) has three members including 31 provincial unions and 476 livestock agro-cooperatives at the county level.

The total memberships of these cooperatives at the primary level are 467,317 animal farmers throughout the country”, he added. Also, he said the Iran Zamin Apiculture union with 36 unions at the provincial level provides service for more than 65000 members nationwide.

Implying the statistical data of the specialized national agro-unions including horticulture union, fishery union, cotton, and breeding union, and light cattle union and tea farmers union Shirzad said that CORC has more than 1825 rural consumer shops and 248 milk collecting centers.

” The capacity of the cold storages and Silages of the CORC amount 60,000 tones and 90,000 tons respectively. Meanwhile, this organization has 28 sorting units, 41 food processing factory and 68 agro-factories which facilitate to improve the welfare of farmers through complementation of the agricultural value chain,” he added

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It is not long before Garrett Hardin, influenced by one of the Victorian British economists, William Forster Lloyd, published an essay on the “Tragedy of the commons” in explaining the theory of “shared resources tragedy” and the behavior of a finite shared source of a large number of users and deciding how much that shared resource can be used. His theory was concerned with the assumptions about human motivations, the rules governing the exploitation of shared resources and the inherent characteristics of the shared resource, and the issue of personal well-being. Still, after five decades, His ecological theories inspire design settings to manage natural resource systems in the developed world.

Over the last three decades, with the gradual and widespread occurrence of water stresses and the phenomenon of climate change in the Middle East and North Africa, the issue of integrated water resources management as the most important element of production in Iran’s agricultural sector has emerged from the private arena and specialized circles. The issue of food health and food security has become a public demand today. It has been less than a decade since we realized that “integrated water resources management” needed to be put into practice a more important issue called the “water resources governance” system, with which we have not yet clarified our task. We are still embroiled in dual (government-based market-private-sector) or dichotomy (regulation-privatization), while we know of many experiences of the ineffectiveness of government rules and regulations, as well as numerous experiences of market failures. It has happened and we are not thinking about a third solution, which is to pay attention to the genuine and experienced institutions and organizations in the country’s rural life.

The aftermath of the doctrines of the Truman, in 1962 the first, second, and tenth principles of the White Revolution, which led to the separation of responsibility and water management of the country from indigenous farmers and its transfer to centralized state institutions, was a fruit of nearly six decades of public administration on water resources. The country has not had a hegemonic approach based on “supply-driven management with a structured-based approach” and recent policies aimed at “demand-driven management with a commodity-oriented approach”, with the exception of a traumatic environmental future, exacerbating the negative balance sheet. And the syndrome of irreversible clogging and death of plains, security-judicial domination, inevitable uplift, and Ridgecrest tariffs on water use, the water market is unfair and blame farmers and agriculture as the main culprit of the country’s water crisis would be followed.

The Imperial Deviance was established in the year 1971 with the passage of the Law on Cooperative Production, and the establishment of Rural Cooperatives aiming to maximize the use of the country’s water and soil resources, and the Rural Cooperatives Act of 1972 In order to move past the wrong policies, water management, irrigation, drainage, distribution management, construction and maintenance of water transmission networks should be transferred to agribusinesses, agro-industries, and rural and agricultural production cooperatives.

Following the victory of the Islamic Revolution, the rural production cooperatives, which consisted of 39 units consisting of 214 villages and farms and a membership of 9700 farmers, were reduced to only 20 units on the basis of the decision of the members and approved by the Ministry of Agriculture. The revitalization of joint-stock companies and rural production cooperatives began in 1989 with the approval of the   Ministry of Agriculture. At present, the model of rural cooperatives as the most inclusive model of exploitation system in the country, compared to other patterns of exploitation system, on the one hand, is welcomed by the beneficiaries’ society, and on the other hand, it is supported by the government.   Over time, the pattern has reached 1414 production cooperatives and 65 unions at the provincial and national levels in 32 provinces, 311 cities, and more than 6400 villages and Access and covers about 418,000 agricultural landowners.

The amount of agricultural land covered by these cooperatives is over 344 million hectares, including 2600,000 hectares of water and 840,000 hectares of dry land. Meanwhile, about 800,000 of the Lands under irrigation are orchards. By the end of 2019, more than 1,500 Rural Cooperatives and 34 agricultural joint-stock companies form a significant part of the country’s organized exploitation system. But unfortunately, only about 110 companies have contracts with regional water companies, so the participatory management approach to conservation and exploitation of water resources with the participation of beneficiaries (rights holders and landowners) in the form of associations and cooperatives and a policy of large-scale farmer participation. And so far at the level of operation, there has been little success, and we continue to see deep conflict, contradiction, and deep gaps between downstream and upstream catchers and gaps within the farm user community within the networks. There is a strategic contrast between the two operators Within the confines of an irrigation and drainage network, there are conflicts in the environmental sustainability of the lakes and conflicts within the farming community and the government within an underground aquifer.

Therefore, we must admit that the implementation of the water governance system and the implementation of the participatory water management project are possible through the strengthening of the real and deeply rooted agricultural trade union system, and the preparation, formulation, and preparation of guidelines, bylaws and necessary technical and administrative standards, the establishment of government and sector cooperation agreements. Private will only be possible with the presence of genuine agricultural organizations that have 50 years of Iranian rural life. On the other hand, apart from the aforementioned institutions, the Central Organization of Rural Cooperatives of Iran since the beginning of the new century, with the understanding of new developments and new participatory approaches of the agricultural sector in the process of social, economic changes of the country in recent decades, originated the emergence of various trade unions.

As a form of non-governmental structures and a symbol of public and civic institutions, these organizations have played an important role in the natural resource management of developed societies. The development and establishment of agricultural trade unions could be an important factor in orienting and creating the appropriate context for the active participation of agricultural trade unionists in their assigned roles in water resources management.

Such non-profit, non-political and nongovernmental entities cover agricultural producers and beneficiaries and, because of their pervasiveness and public nature, can play a significant role in influencing the agricultural development process. Over 992,000 people have joined the agricultural trade unions by the end of 2018. To date, 856,000 business licenses have been issued to members of the trade union based on 350 job titles, which have been identified, standardized, and classified in accordance with the International ASIC Codes. It has been organized and organized in 417 cities and 32 provinces. In addition, the organization of agricultural trade unions in the form of annual assemblies and elections was held in 2018 in 330 cities. This trend has been followed by reasonable growth in 2019.

Therefore, the agricultural trade union system is also a good platform for pursuing a variety of educational, awareness, promotion, incentive and punitive policies for the management and efficient use of water resources, emphasizing the participation of all stakeholders in the country for the sake of fair consumption, Water is optimized and recycled, and the government can naturally enhance the social acceptability of proposals by delegating non-governmental activities to the agricultural trade system, including water management and avoiding unnecessary utilities. This context and avoid any changes or abandonment of these plans by farmers and villagers, To pursue, and more than ever, the direct participation and participation of farmers in the exploitation, decision-making, management, design and evaluation of water resources-related programs.

Undoubtedly, the agricultural trade system will play a key role in sustainable development in the near future. And they will have better management of agricultural water consumption and water governance in Iran. Because of the complexity of today’s water crisis, it has become transnational. Therefore, the necessity to integrate farmers into cooperative production companies, agricultural trade systems, water companies and shareholders of agribusinesses with ecological in the water system of the country without a proper understanding of the trade and social systems Rural and pragmatic understanding of the technical aspects of water resources management cannot be achieved and without this knowledge, we cannot become a program planner to understand the conditions under which a comprehensive plan for sustainable water management in Iran can be formulated.

Therefore, we must be able to present patterns of sustainable agricultural development systems and to the sustainability of water resources by creating different formulations in different water resources management situations, different production modes, multiple cropping patterns and biodiversity of the units. Hydrologic (plains). The Inevitable Solution is Moving Towards a ‘Positive Institutionalization’ Policy Using the country’s most prestigious agricultural institutions alongside the agricultural trade union system, ‘sustainable water development’, ‘people-centered governance’, and modern corporate governance through high levels of corporate governance. Obviously, achieving these goals will require the adoption of new and progressive laws on water governance in parliament.

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Categorizing the market inefficiency into price inefficiency and technical inefficiency, Shirzad went on that the price inefficiency occurs because of the high cost of the production factors including (labor force, storage, transportation…), while, the technical inefficiency is due to the crop wastage. Contract farming boosts the productivity of the labor force, the wholesale and the retails sale with no effect on the quality.
“The high marginal value, meaning the low share of the farmers of the Crops’ final value, should be controlled in the level that no parties (producer and consumers) bear any loss. The official data prove that livestock products, crops, and horticulture products bring about for the producer the minimum market margin accompanied by the maximum share of the final products, respectively. Therefore applying the contract farming for the horticulture sector appears as an essential axiomatic.
It seems natural that some crops show more flexibility to be produced under the contract farming regime. In 2018, about 90% of poultry products, 68% of the pig-raising products, 90% of tobacco and sugar beet have been produced by the contract farming in the USA, while these figures are 25% and 23% for soybean and wheat, respectively. In conclusion, the statistical data prove the increasing trend of contract farming in Europe, Africa, and the USA”, he added.
Citing the global experience, Shirzad referred to the direct relationship between the size of farms with the yield of farming, going on that in 2008, more than 70% of USA large farm, earning at least 1 million US. $ were working under contract farming while this figure for the small farms was 7%.
Furthermore, conducting a bi-step similar survey in Brazil, Chile, Peru, and Argentina demonstrates identical results, in 2010 and 2011.
The results of the long term studies, as well as thematic analysis, prove that the contract farming aid farmers to reduce the risks due to the price fluctuations and guarantees the crop sale. Notwithstanding, it could bring negative consequences including unpredictable risks such as deformation of the agricultural normal structure due to increasing the consumers’ purchasing power.
There have been many innovations in the financing of contract farming. Contracts revitalize indoor and overseas capital rising because they guarantee the crop production for few but target-oriented customers, as well. The Iran experience in the 70s on asparagus farming in the Khuzestan agro-industry companies bears out the above-mentioned result”, the official added, adding that for as much as the contract farming can balance the financial portfolio and capital risk portfolio.
” The comparative study of contract farming throughout the world teaches us that first, applying this system needs a supportive Legislative Power that respects the private ownership too. Contract farming should focus on large and integrated farming systems like RPCs, agro-joint stock companies, and agro-industry corporations. Contract farming in the broiler and egg-laying hens industries of European and American countries is pioneer, and third, contract farming links the national value chain and overseas markets through securing financial affairs “Shirzad added.
Citing to the evolutionary trend of India’s legislative system for contract farming, Shirzad asserted these Rules and Regulations should protect the interests of the farmers, as the weaker of the two parties entering into a contract.
Finally, Shirzad concluded that considering the status quo, RPCs, agro-joint stock companies, and agro-industry corporations possess the most appropriate structure for contract farming; however, we always should apply the experience of the pioneer countries in the field of contract farming to understand the obvious and hidden governing rules. Having a prosperous agriculture system requires to use the global experience to approve the Rules that adopt a unified approach in policymaking, procedures, and designing.

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Aiming to boost the quality and quantity of the improved seeds, obtaining the agency of the international seed institutes and eliminating the excess cost of farmers( due to the purchasing seed disinfectors, packaging, and farm monitoring ), development of climate-based R&Ds and facilitation of oversea transaction of seeds, this cooperative developed by the CORC.

“The founding Board and the Statute were developed by the office of the technical and agricultural services of CORC. Meanwhile, they are going to make a call for holding the first general assembly.” Shirzad added.

Currently, there are more than 84 agro-cooperatives which engaged in the improved seed production, among them 50 cooperatives have enrolled in the Seed Agricultural Cooperative of the Capital.

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In an interview when Iran deputy minister, Dr. Shirzad was asked What the definition of contract farming is, what its
components are, what the meaning of this lexical composition is, and why it has not so far received the
general favor of the farmer community in view of all its advantages, he said, “ Contractual agricultural
status is understood as every phenomenon of public acceptance in the context of conditions and
situations of possibility and refusal. In simple agricultural terms, a contract is a legal contract that binds
the buyer to the producer through a binding contract (a UIFA) and specifies the quantity and quality of
the type of goods to be produced. In fact, contractual production, or custom production, is a form of
agricultural production that is concluded by a written contract based on the sharing of interests
between the producer and the seller and between the real or legal buyer. Contractor including the
document of the quality of sex, quantity, price, form, method of production, date of delivery of the
product which covers the subject of the contractual production and is signed between the parties.
Perhaps in a more precise definition of contract farming is defined as an economic position that is the
distance between spot markets and vertical integration, and a kind of intermediary entity that responds
to market failures and reduces transaction costs.”

He added, “On the other hand, agriculture is a systematic and purposeful contract of exchange of
money-flow in agriculture, whereby producers sign a contract with a local firm or company in order to
exchange a particular product or high-value product for the contracting party. To this end, the farmer or
agricultural firm agrees to provide the conditions required by the contractor. If the farmer fails to meet
the terms of the contract, the firm may reject the crop without payment or reduce payments to the
farmer.

Contract farming is a mechanism that coordinates the relationships between agriculture and
the related industries of conversion, complementary and even maintenance in the chain, leading to the
strengthening of the activities of the processing and conversion industries. This process has led to
positive developments in the food supply chain and highlights its role as an effective strategy. There
have been experiences of using this approach for decades to develop crops such as oilseeds and sugar
beet (by specialized companies) in the country. This approach has been successful in the early stages of
product development called “cash crops” but for many reasons so far, there have been no generalizable
models in line with current conditions and, in turn, agricultural sector policies have led to the
elimination or inefficiency of such companies.”

Shirzad said that currently the conventional cultivation method is used by some private companies (such
as tomato paste producers, medicinal plants) in a limited and often semi-formal manner. The sugar
chain in our country has a long history and has been based on conventional agriculture, but at this
historical juncture, there is room for agronomic chains to be analyzed, redefined and pathologized, and
examined in more specialized workgroups.

When he was asked whether there are any specific historical records in our country of contract or
similar farming, which crops are cultivated under contract farming and what effects it had, Shirzad
relied, “Yes, we have at least two cotton and sugar beet crops in written, substantiated and almost
comprehensive historical records of contract farming with the help of foreign businessmen and
companies operating in Iran.

From a historical point of view, in fact, after Nassereddin Shah’s third visit
to Europe in 1889, a large group of European investors had a keen desire to conclude cultivation and
export contracts and invest in beet cultivation, the establishment of sugar factories, the development of
sugarcane and sugar beet cultivation, cotton. And they even showed up. Russian businessmen were
active in developing conventional cotton cultivation and promoting its high-quality seed in Khorasan,
financing farmers and establishing the first Iranian cotton clearing plant in 1902 in Mazandaran Bar.

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Hossein Shirzad who is also the CEO of the Central Organization for Rural Cooperatives of Iran (CORC)  said more than 60000 rural women have been organized into the 432 rural cooperatives throughout the country to access social integrity as well as a legal entity for boosting women entrepreneurship and livelihood.

Rural women through organizing cooperatives can promote their legal position to engage in major social decision -making and achievement of sustainable development goals, furthermore by development of the national union of rural women cooperative, the potential of these cooperatives could be exploited to develop agricultural value chain, access to credit, infrastructural, information, and business facilities “, Shirzad added.

Emphasizing on the significance of the re-engineering the status qua of the rural women cooperatives, the official asserted that establishment of a national union could align the rural women cooperatives with the national policy of the agriculture ministry that in turn, will lead to integrity of the different kinds of business to boost income the empowerment of the rural women.

“Meanwhile, national unity, boosting the role-playing of rural women in the national decision –making, networking, systematic integrity of agriculture and household business and improving the marketing of their product are the main goals of establishment of the national union of rural women cooperatives”, Shirzad said.

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