TEHRAN- As announced by Reza Bahramlou, the head of Hamedan province’s Agriculture Department, 240 hectares of land were added to the area under greenhouse cultivation in this province during the past Iranian calendar year 1401 (ended on March 20).

Hamadan is one of the important agricultural hubs of Iran. Despite having 2.1 percent of the country's area, this province accounts for producing 4.4 percent of the agricultural products in Iran.

The agricultural sector accounts for 29 percent of employment and 25 percent of the added value of the province's economic activities.

Also, the agricultural sector of Hamedan accounts for 5.4 percent of the production and 4.3 percent of the added value of the country's agricultural sector.

Some 692,000 hectares of agricultural lands in this province are cultivated with agricultural and garden crops.

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

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