TEHRAN- As announced by a provincial official, 69,000 hectares of lands have been equipped with modern irrigation systems in Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari province.

Gholam-Reza Zaker, the director of water and soil as well as technical-engineering affairs of the province’s Agriculture Department, said

This year 320 projects in the field of covering agricultural rivers, restoring and renovating canals, transporting water with pipes, providing and transporting water for the development of gardens in sloping lands, equipping and renovating agricultural lands, constructing irrigation and drainage sub-networks, small water supply projects, constructing swimming pools, the roads between the farms have been planned and being followed up and implemented from the national and provincial funds in the 11 counties of the province.

The project manager of Iranian Agriculture Ministry’s smart irrigation systems development program has said 25,000 hectares of the country’s farmlands have been equipped with modern irrigation systems in the first five months of the current Iranian year (March 21-August 22, 2022).

Fariborz Abbasi, who is the head of the Agriculture Ministry’s Water and Soil Department, has said his ministry is planning to establish modern irrigation systems for 50,000 hectares of farmlands in the current year (ends on March 20).

The deputy agriculture minister noted that this year the ministry has allocated 15 trillion rials (about $35 million) for the implementation of new irrigation systems.

He pointed to the supply and production of equipment for modern irrigation systems inside the country and said: "With the cooperation and help of domestic knowledge-based companies, we have reached self-sufficiency in the production of equipment and supplies for these systems."

Abbasi further mentioned his ministry’s smart agriculture program and said that the smartening projects are being implemented on 4,000 hectares of the country's farmlands as a pilot in 13 provinces.

“In smart agriculture human intervention in irrigation management and planning is minimized by using new technologies,” he explained.

The official expressed hope that considering the budget allocation for the provinces at the beginning of the current Iranian year, the ministry would be able to develop the project in terms of both quantity and quality.

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.

Over the past three years, each year, an average of 150,000 hectares of farmlands have been equipped with modern irrigation systems, and we have witnessed a 300 percent jump.

The Agriculture Ministry is also taking the necessary measures for supporting the domestic manufacturing of equipment used in these systems.

MA/MA