‘Annual wheat production estimated to reach 14m tons’

TEHRAN- Iran is estimated to produce 14 million tons of wheat in the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 20, 2021), IRNA quoted Esmaeil Esfandiari-Pour, the advisor to Agriculture Minister as saying on Sunday.

The official said the COVID-19 pandemic is not going to affect the wheat harvest in the country which has been already started in the southwestern province of Khuzestan.

According to the official, the wheat harvest season is approximately 4.5 months in Iran starting in early April up to mid-August.

Based on the agriculture ministry data, Iranian farmers produced nearly 14.5 million tons of wheat in the previous Iranian calendar year, 1.2 million tons more than the figure for its preceding year.

According to Esfandiari-Pour, who is also the head of the government program to buy wheat from farmers, Iran’s use of improved seed technology over the past five years has boosted the country’s self-sufficiency in wheat by more than 30.

Good precipitation across Iran has also resulted in a prosperous harvest in various agricultural sectors across the country.

Iran’s wheat harvest is enough to make the county self-sufficient in the production of this strategic crop for the fifth year in a row, according to the official.

Irrigated wheat covers only one-third of the total wheat area, thus the bulk of the wheat crop depends on seasonal precipitation. Most of the rain-fed wheat crop is concentrated in the northwest. 

EF/MA
Original News : https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/446557/Annual-wheat-production-estimated-to-reach-14m-tons