An official with the Rural Cooperatives Organization has announced a new plan that would soon centralize all information relevant to agricultural beneficiaries in an integrated online system.
“In line with plans to further regulate affairs related to Iranian farmers, all the information relevant to agricultural beneficiaries throughout Iran will be registered in their work permits, and the collected data will then be saved into a comprehensive network system,” said Abdoreza Moslemi, the head of the organization’s agricultural corporation office. “All farmers must therefore, be signed up to the network in order to receive further payments.”
It is estimated that around 430 agricultural guilds are now active in Iran. These guilds have received their operation licenses from the agriculture ministry. The official said even this number is not accurate, as there have been other organizations which have issued similar licenses for other guilds.
In order for agricultural guilds to function more effectively, the official stressed that it is necessary to unify all existing laws and regulations. Agricultural guilds may not be able to directly engage in sorting out the market, but they are “well familiar with the tricks of the trade.” Therefore they can highly benefit the farmers.
One of the main concerns of the agricultural guild, the official stated, is to provide farmers with the minimum necessary resources in the production chain. The office is designing a comprehensive network system which will store all data relevant to farmers throughout Iran.
Accordingly, agriculture-related jobs have been categorized into 235 groups, and depending on the type of job the farmers do, they will be placed in either one of these categories. Based on the data submitted and the type of jobs the farmers do, the agricultural guild will then issue their permits.
The official further added that registered in this operation license will be all the information on the farmers and the units in which they work.
All of that data, in turn, can be submitted to the system. Data will be collected regionally and nationally.
In line with Iran’s 6th Five-Year Economic Development Plan, all efforts are being made to complete the comprehensive agricultural network system.
Once the system is complete, data on affairs related to farmers and agricultural subdivisions, maps of farmlands, number of beneficiaries and agricultural units will all be available on the network.
On the benefits of creating this system, the official stated that surveys will no longer have to be run on the number of farmers, the data on the farmers’ licenses in the system will be updated annually.
Almost 36,000 operation licenses have been registered in agricultural guild offices throughout the country. If every farmer receives a license, the amount of annual savings will become clear, also plans for supplying farmers with the necessary resources will be updated and optimized.
The office is also trying to gain further credit for the licenses, so that farmers could use them to receive certain services or as banking collaterals, the official said.
