BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 4
By Elnur Baghishov - Trend
About 2.5 million hectares of land in Iran have been provided with modern irrigation systems, Executor of the modern irrigation systems project of Iranian Ministry Agriculture Jihad Abbas Zare said, Trend reports citing the ministry.
According to Zare, great progress has been made in Iran in the use of water resources since 2016.
Zare added that since 2016, around 150,000 hectares on average have been equipped with modern irrigation systems each year. This means an increase of about 300 percent.
The official said that it was planned to put into operation modern irrigation systems on an area of about 132,000 hectares last year (from March 21, 2019 to March 20, 2020). However, the timing of this plan has been changed to the current year (starting March 20, 2020) due to coronavirus.
Iran produces more than 120 million tons of agricultural products a year.
Iran is one of the countries heavily affected by the rapidly-spreading coronavirus. According to recent reports from the Iranian officials, over 98,600 people have been infected 6,277 people have already died. Meanwhile, over 79,300 have reportedly recovered from the disease.
The country continues to apply strict measures to contain the further spread. Reportedly, the disease was brought to Iran by a businessman from Iran's Qom city, who went on a business trip to China, despite official warnings. The man died later from the disease.
The Islamic Republic only announced its first infections and deaths from the coronavirus on Feb. 19.