TEHRAN- Modern irrigation systems have been established in 8,410 hectares of farmlands in Khorasan Razavi Province, northeast of Iran, since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20), the director of the Iranian Agriculture Ministry’s modern irrigation systems development plan announced.

Abbas Zare said Khorasan Razavi stood at first place among the other provinces in terms of establishing the mentioned systems since the year start, while Kerman Province (Iran’s largest province in the southeast of the country) stood at second place.

The purpose of implementing the plan of modern irrigation systems is to increase the productivity and sustainability of water and soil resources in the country to ensure the sustainable production of agricultural products.

According to Zare, in the current Iranian calendar year, nearly 16 trillion rials (about $380.9 million) has been allocated from the annual budget and the National Development Fund (NDF) for the development of various irrigation methods.

The official has said that the implementation of this plan is going to increase the irrigation efficiency of the farmlands to 44 percent which will increase the production capacity of agricultural products by 30 percent.

MA/MA