Page 52 - IRANRptSep21

Severe drought ‘means Iran will have to import wheat’
‘Ignorant or careless ministers spreading rice cultivation across Iran despite water crisis’
Toughest in 50 years
according to All About Feed.
With the Iranian government intent on saving FX, there are thought to be 3mn tonnes of grain stuck at customs clearance at seaports awaiting the payment of bills.
The US dollar was by the end of August 26 trading at 275,000 rials on Tehran’s open market, hitting 2021 highs. Farmers will be anxious that the latest deprecation will prompt the authorities to further cut down on hard currency expenditures.
The impact of severe drought means Iran will in the current Persian year (started March 21) have to import wheat, the secretary of the Iranian parliament’s agriculture committee was on August 13 cited as saying by IRNA.
“Although our strategic wheat stocks are currently in good condition, it must be put on the agenda to meet the future needs through imports,” Zabihollah A’zami told the news agency.
Agriculture ministry data reportedly shows that to date in the Persian year 4,463,000 tonnes of wheat have been purchased from farmers, and a maximum of 4,600,000 tonnes is expected.
“Latest statistics show that the country may need to import eight million tonnes of wheat this year,” A’zami was also reported as saying after assessing the likely shortfall.
In the past five years, due to self-sufficiency in wheat production and supply, Iran, a country of 84mn, has not needed to lift its ban on wheat imports.
Iran’s wheat production exceeded 14mn tonnes in the previous Iranian year. The wheat harvesting season in Iran runs from early April to mid-August.
Growing rice on Iranian land other than territories bordering the Caspian Sea “is like shooting oneself in the foot”, according to a Tehran Times columnist who has warned of the peril posed to Iran by the expanded cultivation of the water-intensive crop. M.A. Saki sounded the alarm following two weeks in which street protests over water shortages have rocked parts of the country.
Despite Iran’s water scarcity, the cultivation of rice has been spreading in around 20 provinces across the country “like a pandemic”, he wrote.
Weighing up the dire situation, Saki cautioned: “The cultivation of rice, which started [in Iran] more than 20 years ago, has dried up rivers and led to the depletion of underground waters in some places. To compensate for water shortage, farmers are digging deeper and deeper wells to irrigate paddy fields. “The massive consumption of surface waters to irrigate paddy fields or other water-intensive crops like onion or watermelon has even disrupted the ecosystem in certain areas. However, officials, especially those in the ministries of agriculture and energy, are either ignorant of the short-term and long-term consequences of this move or they are purely careless.”
Saki said it was possible that agriculture ministers have wanted to take pride in the fact that during their tenures Iranian rice production expanded. But implying that this was wrong-headed, the columnist observed: “Iran is an arid and semi-arid country, and during history Iranians had learned how to manage water resources. But now that Iran is seeing less precipitation and more droughts due to climate change farmers are being allowed to grow crops that need lots of water.”
Sadeq Ziaeian, director of Iran's National Drought Warning and Monitoring Center, this week told Iranian media that the country was facing one of its toughest rainfall seasons in 50 years.
In comments made to IRNA and carried by the Tehran Times, he noted rainfall
52 IRAN Country Report September 2021 www.intellinews.com