Iran Taking Long Steps towards Agricultural Mechanization

In a Farsi interview with Mehr New Agency, Kambiz Hosseini said Iran has invested hugely in agricultural mechanization, and the traditional gap between Iran and the developed countries in agricultural mechanization is being bridged further day by day.

“Today, about 70 percent and 95 percent of cereals are cultivated and harvested mechanically, respectively,” he said, adding that about 80 percent of the country’s rice is cultivated and harvested mechanically.

Hosseini also said the agricultural industry of Iran has 440,000 units of tractor, 35,000 units of seed processing machinery, over 16,000 units of combine harvester and tens of other agricultural machineries.

“Penetration of mechanization has dramatically increased in Iran’s agriculture over the past years,” he stressed.

One of the main reasons behind Iran’s recent success in wheat production is that the Iranian farmers use agricultural machinery, he added.

“Japan’s mechanization penetration in the agricultural field stands at 14 hp/h followed by European states with 6 hp/h and the US with 2.5 hp/h and Australia with 3 hp/h,” he said.

However, he noted, this does not mean that the agricultural production of the countries with higher mechanization penetration is higher than the US and Australia.

Hosseini added about 95 percent of the mechanization process of Iran’s agricultural field is being carried out by the local companies and only five percent of the agricultural machinery are imported from abroad.