TEHRAN – A system will be launched to monitor, forecast and report the agricultural lands being hit by drought, Amir Qaderi, an official with Disaster Management Organization has announced.

Over a meeting of a special working group for addressing drought and risks threatening agricultural sector, a plan for establishing a system for monitoring and forecasting agricultural drought in the country was approved and submitted to the Disaster Management Organization for review, he explained.

“Following the study of other countries’ experiences and existing global methods, the necessity of establishing a domestic system to recognize the lands prone to agricultural drought was emphasized,” he noted. 

He went on to add that the plan was prepared in a collaborative initiative between the research centers of the country's Meteorological Organization and Soil Conservation and Watershed Management Research Institute affiliated to the Ministry of Agriculture.

The plan is very valuable and its implementation is one of the basic requirements in risk management and agricultural drought crisis in the country, Qaderi highlighted.

He further concluded that the budget required for the implementation will be provided from disaster management funds, IRNA reported on Sunday.

Agriculture highly depends on climate and is adversely affected by climate extremes caused mainly by anthropogenic climate change and increasing climate variability. Moreover, agricultural production risks and vulnerability of agriculture may become an issue in several regions around the world as mainly droughts and heat waves are likely to increase the incidence of crop failure. 

Indeed, drought is considered one of the major natural hazards with significant impact to environment, society, agriculture and economy. Specifically, agricultural drought refers to the availability of soil water to support crop and forage growth and there is no direct relationship between precipitation and infiltration of precipitation into the soil. 

FB/MQ/MG