Greenhouse Production Capacity to Rise 20%

Greenhouses will be established on 2,240 hectares in Iran during the current fiscal year (started March 21), the executive manager of the Greenhouse Expansion Project with the Ministry of Agriculture said. “This will increase our greenhouse production capacity by 20%,” Mostafa Seyyedpour was also quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency. “Iran’s greenhouse area up until last year amounted to 11,213 hectares, of which 2 million tons of vegetables and strawberries and 1.5 billion cut flowers were harvested,” he added. The Ministry of Agriculture plans to transfer all vegetable farms to greenhouses within 10 years to save some 10 billion cubic meters of water per year. Iran is home to only 0.3% of the world’s greenhouses. First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri said one of the main priorities of the government is to develop industrial greenhouses. The government plans to increase the area under greenhouse cultivation in Iran to 48,000 hectares within the next 10 years.