TEHRAN – The head of Iran’s Agricultural Mechanization Development Center said the government has paid 7.23 trillion rials (about $172.14 million) of the allocated budget for agricultural mechanization during the first four months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-July 21).

“With the support of the Agricultural Ministry and the Agricultural Bank, more than 723 billion tomans [7.23 trillion rials] of funding was absorbed by the end of [the Iranian calendar month of] Tir (July 21),” IRNA quoted Kambiz Abbasi as saying.

“Despite all the restrictions, more than 7,100 tractors have been added to the agricultural sector’s fleet,” 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 (started on March 21, 2013) so far, eight credit lines have been opened for this sector.

As reported, 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.

According to Abbasi 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.

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.

Iran’s agricultural mechanization coefficient has currently reached 1.65 horsepower per hectare and this figure is set to increase to 2.1 horsepower.

Implementing billions of dollars’ worth of development, research, and educational projects across the country is an indication of the significant improvements in this sector.

EF/MA