TEHRAN – The share of the agriculture sector in Iran's non-oil gross domestic product (GDP) reached 8.8 percent in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19), IRIB reported, quoting an official with the Agriculture Ministry.

“Over the years, the agricultural sector has been the only economic sector that has always registered positive growth, so that we see the growth of this sector reaching 8.8 percent in [the Iranian calendar year] 1398 from three percent in 1392 (March 2013-March 2014),” Shahrokh Shajari said.

“We must be able to increase the economic growth of this sector even more by using modern science and new technologies and methods, both in the technical aspects and in the commercial sector”, the acting head of Agriculture Ministry’s Economic Affairs Department stressed.

Shajari noted that to realize the development projects in the agricultural sector 15 percent of the country’s total bank resources should be allocated to this sector.

“Unfortunately, the banking system allocates only about eight percent of its resources to the agriculture sector, and if we exclude the share of Bank Keshavarzi(Agricultural Bank), the share of other banks is only two percent,” he regretted.

He said that the reason for the low export prices of Iranian products compared to neighboring countries is because Iranian exports are mostly supply-oriented.

"We must move toward being demand-oriented, when we produce the products needed by the destination markets, we will trade at a reasonable price,” he added.

In late June, Shajari announced that Iran’s agricultural production is expected to reach 128 million tons in the current Iranian calendar year (March 2020-March 2021).

Speaking in a meeting of Agriculture Ministry’s senior officials with First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri, Shajari put the country’s agriculture production in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19) at 123 million tons.

He pointed to improving the trade balance of agriculture and food sectors, preserving the country’s basic resources, improving food security by relying on domestic production, and improving productivity as some of the most important strategies of the Agriculture Ministry for the current Iranian calendar year.

EF/MA