Wheat Planting Season Begins in Iran

The wheat planting season began in mid September and from the 5.75 million hectares of land designated this year for wheat farming, so far 2.64 million hectares have gone under the cultivation of the staple crop, according to an official with the Ministry of Agriculture.

“This means close to 46% of this year’s wheat planting has been accomplished. Farmers will continue planting the grain until mid December,” Esmaeil Esfandiarpour was also quoted as saying by IRNA.

A record high of 14 million tons of wheat were domestically produced this year, more than 11.76 million tons of which (worth over $4 billion) were purchased by the government from local farmers at a guaranteed price.

Every year, the government buys wheat from local farmers at guaranteed prices to build up its strategic reserves and control prices in the domestic market.

Khuzestan in the south with close to 1.4 million tons, Golestan in the north with over 1.36 million tons, Fars in central Iran with 1 million tons, Kurdestan and Kermanshah in the west with 900,000 tons and 743,000 tons respectively top the list of provinces from where the purchases were made, Khabar Online reported.