TEHRAN - The head of Iran’s Agricultural Mechanization Development Center said the government has paid 26 trillion rials (about $619.04 million) of the allocated budget for agricultural mechanization since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21), IRNA reported.

According to Kambiz Abbasi, the mentioned figure which is equal to 87 percent of the total budget allocated to a credit line for agricultural mechanization has been used to supply agricultural machinery, tools and equipment in various fields including horticulture, livestock, poultry, and aquaculture.

This allocation will ensure achieving the production goals of the Agriculture Ministry at the beginning of the new crop year, Abbasi said.

It is estimated that more than 86 percent of the country's wheat, barley and rapeseed fields will be fully mechanized in the current Iranian calendar year, the official added.

The agriculture ministry has been allocating a separate credit line for the mechanization of the agriculture sector every year, so that since the Iranian calendar year of 1392 (started on March 21, 2013) so far, eight credit lines have been opened for this sector.

According to Abbasi 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.

Iran’s agricultural mechanization coefficient has currently reached 1.65 horsepower per hectare and this figure is set to increase to 2.1 horsepower.

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