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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During an open session this morning, the Parliament discussed the vote for Kazem Khavazi, after lawmakers in favor of and against the proposed minister took the podium to express their views.

After voting, 196 out of 215 lawmakers voted for Khavazi to be the next minister of agriculture, while 15 MPs voted against the nomination and four abstained.

Former agriculture minister Mahmoud Hojjati resigned in November 2019 before being impeached by the Parliament.

Hojjati had already survived a vote of no-confidence in the Parliament in March 2018.

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Nevertheless, the capital market has achieved to be the second source for allocating funds at the macro-economic level through facilitating rules and regulations and issuing binding bonds and percentage stocks over the past decade. Unfortunately, the agricultural sector has not been able to grasp the concept of “from bean to the shelf” due to a lack of supportive infrastructural facilities, efficient capital raising corporations and financial know-how.

Out of the 326 Iranian corporations that are active in the stock exchange market, only a few are upstream and downstream agricultural companies.

Currently, the agricultural sector has access to the Islamic financial tools, including partnership, bailment of capital, contract for the agricultural purpose and percentage, debt and renting. These tools could provide a great opportunity for the public and private sector, including the mangers of the agricultural supply chain, investors and the Ministry of Agricultural Jihad. Regrettably, from among the contracts, only Mozarebeh (bailment of capital) and renting have been extensively used by Iranian banks. The interesting point is that the extensive use of the abovementioned Islamic financial tools will lead to the fair distribution of the risks involved in the agricultural sector among different stakeholders, including farmers and shareholders. Therefore, the income will be fairly balanced between different deciles of the agricultural chain. The policymakers of the financial sectors should shift their focus from the banking system toward the stock exchange market. In such a system, the shareholders can enjoy the interest of their share, while being able to reap benefits from rises in the value of the products and crops. However, this system should be supported by policymakers, credit institutions, and public and private organizations. Allocating an insufficient budget for the agricultural sector within an efficient banking system should raise the alarm for the managers. Crises such as agricultural overproduction – in Iran pertaining to crops including tomato, cucumber, garlic, and saffron – can be resolved solely by activating supporting mechanisms, like the in-time guaranteed purchase of the products at supportive prices. Nowadays, the crisis of agricultural overproduction has hit other crops in Iran as well. Thus the banking system alone cannot play an effective role. The financial indicators, like yield and risk indices, should be pre-calculated and used by these systems to control the agricultural overproduction. Gaining acceptable marginal benefits from business in the agricultural sector requires the adoption of appropriate policies that support the agricultural value chain, along with stock issuance and applying domesticated patterns of contract farming.

What experienced by the Central Organization for Rural Cooperatives of Iran (CORC) in 2018 and 2019 is proof that the banking system alone fails to be sufficient for resolving the financial problems besetting the agricultural sector. Mobilizing different financial resources and using available tools to issue stock and bonds in the stock exchange market will surely pave the way for sustainable fundraising in the agricultural sector.

* H. Shirzad is the deputy agricultural Jihad minister and the CEO of the Central Organization for Rural Cooperatives of Iran (CORC).

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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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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 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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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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TEHRAN (Iran News) – A total of 2.2 million hectares of Iran farmlands have been equipped with modern irrigation systems since the beginning of a plan by the Ministry of Agricultural Jihad to this end, said the manager of the project.

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TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran investment in the field of agricultural machinery worths more than $357 million since the beginning of the current Iranian year (March 21, 2019), announced the head of Iran’s Agricultural Mechanization Development Center (AMDC).

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So far, about 25 Saffron farmers cooperatives in 6 provinces of the country have been established as an agricultural organization.

“The most important role these organizations can play in empowering saffron farmers is to follow the demands of farmers from the public sector and other sectors. And in dealing with other economic sectors of the country, they can address the problems, obstacles, and challenges facing saffron farmers,” Shirzad, who is also the chairman and CEO of the Central Organization of Rural Cooperatives  (CORC) of Iran, said.

“To that end and in order to defend the rights and interests of saffron producers, supporting the supply and production chain and the value of the saffron industry is essential to establish a national union,” Shirzad noted, adding, “The organization can be especially effective in marketing, balancing and regulating the saffron market.”

The Union of Saffron farmers Co-operatives is an organization with an economic and social approach that can, within the framework of its laws and regulations, regulate saffron farmers’ cooperatives to achieve their legitimate interests in accordance with the principles of cooperative law. Approved by the year 1971, he added.

Also, Shirzad continued, the Union can collaborate and interact with government and non-governmental sectors such as training and transferring the up to date scientific information to saffron farmers, pursuing easy access of farmers to agricultural inputs, striving for better marketing of saffron crops. , liaising with the government and influencing saffron policymaking and ultimately Strengthening the economic and welfare vigor of saffron farmers.

He pointed to the experiences of other national unions in the field of agriculture and the countryside and added that the National Union of Saffron Farmers’ Co-operatives in Saffron Marketing certainly has a higher degree of interaction and coordination and bargaining power than individual Saffron farmers and Even co-operatives.

And it can help saffron growers to sell their products at a more suitable price, he underlined.

Shirzad highlighted the Rural Cooperative Organization move to make non-guaranteed purchase of saffron from farmers that eliminates dealers and intermediaries from the saffron market and said: In general, the purpose of the Rural Cooperative in non-guaranteed purchase of agricultural products is to balance, regulate the market and prevent severe fluctuations in agricultural prices and its gradual supply.

In conclusion, Shirzad said the National Union and Saffron Co-operative Companies can contribute to balancing and regulating the saffron market with Rural Cooperative Organization and can apply saffron farming policies and Technical issues, production and operation of this strategic product play an important role in specialized departments, including the Department of Horticulture.

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