The Agriculture Ministry’s cropping pattern project for the crop year 2022-23 has selected the provinces prioritized for the production of oilseeds and pulses, and the volume each province is estimated to produce.
As for oilseeds, plans are for Khuzestan Province in the south of the country to produce 161,000 tons, Fars 64,000 tons, West Azarbaijan 56,000 tons and Khorasan Razavi 35,000 tons, IRIB News reported.
Lorestan Province is expected to produce 135,000 tons of pulses, Kermanshar 128,000 tons, Fars 76,000 tons, Kurdestan 59,000 tons, East Azarbaijan 55,000 tons, Zanjan 50,000 tons, Khuzestan 43,000 tons and Markazi 42,000 tons.
Iran imports the lion’s share of its domestic demand for oilseeds and pulses mainly from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, China, Australia, Canada and Ethiopia.
The Agriculture Ministry says it offers incentives and banking facilities to farmers who cooperate in the government’s cropping pattern project and will reduce their water fees.
“We have around 12 million hectares of farmlands scattered across the country and plans are to cultivate 15 agricultural products based on cropping pattern on nearly 60% of them,” deputy minister of Agronomical affairs with the Agriculture Ministry, Alireza Mohajer, was quoted as saying by IRNA last month.
The successful execution of the country’s cropping pattern, he added, cannot be carried out by the Agriculture Ministry alone, as farmers are the owners of land and many responsible bodies need to provide them with subsidized fertilizers, good seeds and cheap banking facilities.
“The ministries of Industries, Mining and Trade; Energy; and Economic Affairs and Finance; as well as the Central Bank of Iran; and Management and Planning Organization of Iran need to get involved in cultivation based on cropping patterns to guarantee its success,” he said.
Cropping pattern refers to the proportion of land under cultivation of different crops at different points of time. It charts the time and arrangement of crops in a particular land area.
According to Deputy Agriculture Minister Mohammad Qorbani, the project is aimed at increasing the production of essential goods and decreasing cultivation of water-intensive crops.
“We are planning to do this by restricting the land under cultivation of vegetables and levying export taxes on these products,” he said.
Experts have been warning for years against the cultivation of water-intensive crops, saying that Iran is a dry country with limited arable land and needs to focus on using its limited resources of water and soil to produce essential goods.
According to Mohajer, the main hurdle facing implementation of cropping patter in Iran is the ongoing market dynamics.
“When farmers see that the potato market is much more profitable than that of wheat, they decide to cultivate potato, which requires more water to grow,” he said
The deputy minister noted that the Agriculture Ministry cannot force farmers to stick to the cropping pattern project, adding that the only thing the government can do is offer incentives.
“Farmers usually prefer to cultivate vegetables instead of essential crops because they are much more profitable in the consumer market. This is while these products are way more water-intensive that most grains,” he said.
“Another reason why farmers opt for vegetable cultivation is the export prices of these products. Vegetables are more expensive than grains in the markets of our neighboring countries, which makes exports of these goods more profitable.”
