TEHRAN- Greenhouses are being established in 180 hectares of land in Ardebil province, in the northwest of Iran, according to a provincial official.

Nader Taqizadeh, the head of the province’s Agriculture Department, also announced that 30,000 tons of products cultivated in the greenhouses of the province are exported.

As recently stated by the deputy agriculture minister, the development of greenhouse cultivation is a major policy of the Agriculture Ministry.

Safdar Niazi Shahraki reiterated that taking the country’s water resources into account, one of the policies of the government is the development of greenhouse cultivation, and good facilities have been considered for such works.

In this regard, several projects have been defined and introduced to the banks, and as soon as the notification is made, the projects will receive facilities and their implementation will begin, the official added.

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 project 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.

MA/MA