TEHRAN – Head of Iran’s Agricultural Mechanization Development Center (AMDC) said over 11,400 tractors have been provided for the country’s farmers during the first six months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-September 21).

According to Kambiz Abbasi, the government has paid 13.5 trillion rials (about $321.42 million) of the allocated budget for agricultural mechanization during the mentioned six months, IRNA reported.

The official noted that a total of 15,000 tractors of different types were provided for the farmers in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19).

Back in August, Abbasi had announced that 7.23 trillion rials (about $172.14 million) was injected by the government into a special credit line for agricultural mechanization during the first four months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-July 21).

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, most of the goals in the mechanization of various agriculture sectors will be achieved without any problems despite the U.S. sanctions.

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