TEHRAN - Following the Iranian Agriculture Ministry’s smart irrigation systems development program, the ministry plans to equip 5,000 hectares of farmlands with smart irrigation systems in the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 21), the ministry’s project manager for the mentioned program said.

According to Fariborz Abbasi, this pilot project will be implemented in various provinces such as Golestan, Ardebil, Qazvin, Fars, and Khorasan Razavi if the necessary funding is provided, IRIB reported on Sunday.

Abbasi noted that smartening of irrigation systems will increase their efficiency, improve their performance, and increases their productivity.

He further mentioned the Agriculture Ministry’s plans for indigenizing the knowledge for the manufacturing and installation of smart irrigation systems, saying: “In this regard, we intend to implement model projects to identify suitable technologies for the new irrigation systems in different regions according to climatic and social conditions and offer them to farmers and private companies.”

“With the smartening of modern irrigation systems, human intervention in the operation of the system is reduced and carried out by tools, sensors, and equipment inside the field,” Abbasi explained.

He said that the smartening of new irrigation systems has been currently implemented by some farmers, adding that the farmers have implemented it considering the benefits of intelligent irrigation systems.

Considering the importance of water consumption management in the agricultural sector, the Iranian Agriculture Ministry has been implementing a plan for installing modern irrigation systems in the country’s farmlands over the past few years and the new program for smartening these systems will increase their efficiency to a great extent.

Over the past three years, each year, an average of 150,000 hectares of farmlands have been equipped with modern irrigation systems, according to the ministry data.

Back in May 2020, outgoing Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian said Energy Ministry has implemented 301,000 hectares of irrigation and drainage networks since 2017.

EF/MA