BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 30
By Elnur Baghishov - Trend:
Since the beginning of the current sowing season till Dec. 25, the area under wheat has so far reached 5.8 million hectares in Iran, Adviser to Iran's Agriculture Minister Esmaeil Esfandiaripour said, Trend reports.
According to this year's program, it is planned to sow six million hectares with wheat, Esfandiaripour said.
Compared to the previous year, the area under wheat has increased by 2 percent (115,000 hectares), the adviser to the agriculture minister said.
This year, Iranian farmers mostly used wheat from their own storage, the ministry official noted.
In the current year, 290,000 tons of genetically modified wheat have been sold to farmers, which is far less compared to the previous year, Esfandiaripour said, while stressing that using genetically modified wheat varieties is essential to increase the yield.
In the current Iranian year (began on March 21, 2019), Iran produced 14 million tons of wheat. The country's annual wheat consumption is 11.5 million tons. Iranian wheat growers have refused to sell their crop to state procurement companies due to unjust prices. According to reports, farmers have not sold three million tons of wheat to state companies.