Tehran, Iran, Oct. 8
By Mehdi Sepahvand – Trend:
Last week, the Iranian government started granting elementary insurance coverage to agricultural products.
The project was kicked off in Char Mahal-Bakhtiari Province, where authorities cited support for domestic product as the motive.
The Iranian government has been paying more and more attention to rural areas and their residents, who are responsible for about 90 percent of the country’s agricultural output.
Agriculture’s share in Iranian economy is a little above 30 percent. There are 2,600 rural districts in Iran with a population of 20.7 million. Iran’s total population is 80 million. Rural population declined by close to 800,000 over the past five years, growing concerns with officials over migration.
The recent insurance plan would have the government pay up to 85 percent of the insurance fee. The insurance claims will cover wheat, grapes, apples, pistachio, livestock, and eggs.
Farmers in Iran will be paid as much as 113.5 trillion rials for last year’s damage to their agricultural products this fiscal year (to end March 20, 2018), sources recently reported.
According to official announcements, a full, nationwide insurance coverage in Iran would cost 300 to 400 trillion rials.
About 19.1 percent of the country's labor force has been employed in the agriculture sector in recent years.
(33,856 rials = 1 USD on Oct. 6)