TEHRAN- The area under greenhouse cultivation grew by 525 percent in Qazvin province over the past 11 months, the head of the province’s Agriculture Department announced.

Highlighting that 420 hectares of greenhouse cultivation capacity in Qazvin province is a great honor for the government in less than a year, Reza Aflatouni said: “One of the key measures taken by this department in the last one year is defining and starting the implementation of the medicinal plant cultivation plan in the form of establishing an agricultural estate”.

In recent years, the water crisis has caused serious challenges in Iran’s agriculture sector.

To solve this problem, several solutions, including the implementation of pressurized irrigation projects and greenhouse cultivation, have been emphasized by experts and officials in this sector.

Iranian Agriculture Ministry’s Greenhouse Development Program is one of the priority projects of this ministry which aims at increasing productivity, efficiency, and water consumption management in the agriculture sector.

The program was approved in the Iranian calendar year 1395 (ended on March 20, 2017) under the framework of the National Resilient Economy Plan.

The development of the country’s agricultural parks and greenhouses not only is going to create new job opportunities but also increases the country’s non-oil exports and helps preserve the environment and the national water and soil resources.

In last August, Darioush Salempour, the director of the Agriculture Ministry’s Greenhouse Development Program, had mentioned the ministry’s plans for the modernization and renovation of the country’s traditional and old greenhouses, saying: “Our plan in the 10-year horizon is to improve and renovate more than 5,000 traditional, wooden and worn-out greenhouses across the country.”

“We have planned to renovate about 650 to 700 hectares of traditional and worn-out greenhouses each year,” he added.

Due to the growing need of the market for flowers and ornamental plants, as well as off-season vegetables and summer crops, greenhouse cultivation has become one of the most profitable agricultural sectors today.

Cultivation in the controlled space of the greenhouse will have an average of 10 times higher yield per unit area than outdoor cultivation due to suitable environmental conditions.

Significant reduction in water consumption in modern greenhouses is in fact the major advantage of greenhouse cultivation.

In greenhouse cultivation, due to the closed environment, water loss through various evaporation ways is greatly reduced. Also, through mechanized irrigation methods such as irrigation canvas and irrigation tape, water consumption is minimized.

Increased control over pests, weeds and diseases is the other advantage of greenhouse cultivation.

In greenhouse cultivation, due to accurate monitoring and control of pests and diseases, especially the use of biological control methods and a sharp reduction in the use of chemical pesticides, we will see an increase in product quality, that will lead to the popularity of the product in the market and increase export capability.

As a result, along with preserving the soil and environment, we will see good foreign currency income.

MA/MA