Iran’s agricultural trade deficit decreased by 32% in the past Iranian calendar year (ended March 20), reaching $5.4 billion from the preceding year’s $8 billion, Abdolmahdi Bakhshandeh, a senior official at the agriculture ministry, said on Sunday. “The country imported agricultural goods worth $12 billion last year, showing about a 9% decline compared with the preceding year’s figure of $13.1 billion,” he was quoted by Mehr news agency as saying, adding that different agricultural goods worth $6.6 billion were exported during the same period, which shows an increase of about 27% compared with the preceding year, underlining the drastic rise in the export of agricultural products. He further said that 170,000 hectares of agricultural land came under modern irrigation systems last year, expecting a further 200,000 hectares to be added in the current year. Development of mechanized agriculture or modern farming is a major goal pursued by President Hassan Rouhani’s administration. “Traditional agriculture is no longer able to compete in the world of competitive economies,” said the president in December last year.
