Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.18
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Farmland erosion rate in Iran is 20 times of world standards.
Nayereh Pirouzbakht, the director of the National Iranian Standards Organization, said the issue should be seriously addressed by related officials, Iran's IRNA news agency reported on October 18.
However, she did not provide any data about soil erosion in Iran and in the world.
The amount of soil erosion in Iran is five times of the world average, according to Iranian statistics. As the national population has increased by three times over the past 45 years, the total area of forests and pastures has been significantly decreased.
Iran Forests, Range, and Watershed Management Organization said that soil erosion in the country is 16.7 metric tons per hectare annually. Iran is estimated to suffer an economic loss of $56 billion per year due to soil erosion.