TEHRAN – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Thursday inaugurated several agricultural projects worth 81.47 trillion rials (about $1.93 billion) through video conference in various provinces, IRNA reported.

The mentioned projects which were put into operation in a variety of fields including water and soil, fisheries, livestock and poultry, are going to provide job opportunities for over 42,300 people.

Some 3,913 of the inaugurated projects were related to installing new irrigation systems that covered an area of 72,000 hectares, while 150 projects were implemented in the fisheries sector and 571 projects were related to livestock and poultry sectors.

The inaugurated projects include some pressurized irrigation systems, several projects for increasing irrigation efficiency and water consumption management, some fish and shrimp breeding plants, improvement and organization of fishing ports, and several dairy production units.

Back in February, Rouhani had inaugurated 372 greenhouse projects as well as two livestock complexes worth 49 trillion rials (about $1.16 billion) in the 47th series of inauguration ceremonies in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20).

The mentioned projects, inaugurated concurrently with the Fajr Ten-Day celebrations (from January 31 until February 10), created direct job opportunities for 11,850 people.

Of the total investment made in the mentioned projects 15.4 trillion rials (about $366.6 million) was provided by the private sector and the rest was made by the government.

Also in July 2020, Agriculture Ministry had announced plans for creating 2,500 hectares of new greenhouses in the country.

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 is situated in a dry plateau with limited water resources, so most of the country’s development projects in the agriculture sector have been focused on decreasing and managing water consumption by introducing new irrigation methods. 

EF/MA