TEHRAN – The head of Iran’s Agricultural Mechanization Development Center said since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21) the government has funded two trillion rials (about $47.6 million) of the allocated budget for agricultural mechanization.

“By the end of this year (March 19, 2020), up to 16 trillion rials (about $380 million) of funding will go for the agricultural mechanization,” ILNA quoted Kambiz Abbasi as saying.

According to Abbasi, more than 82 trillion rials (about $1.95 billion) of investment has been attracted in this area in the past six years.

“Nearly 70 trillion rials (about $1.6 billion) of the mentioned investment has come from government credit lines allocated for this industry and the rest has been funded by private companies and farmers themselves,” he explained.

In late May, Abbasi had announced that the government allocated 18 trillion rials (over $428.5 million) for mechanization of the country’s agricultural sectors including agriculture, horticulture, livestock, poultry, aquatic, and forests.

According to the official, last year 15.4 trillion rials (over $366 million) was allocated in this area.

The official noted that since over 95 percent of the technology and knowledge in this area is domestic, despite the U.S. sanctions most of the goals in the mechanization of various agriculture sectors will be achieved without any problems.

In the past forty years, since the Islamic Revolution, Iran has witnessed a remarkable improvement in various sectors and the agriculture industry has been one of the areas in which the country has undergone huge development.

Implementing billions of dollars’ worth of development, research and educational projects across the country is an indication of the significant improvements in this sector.

EF/MA