Official: New Cultivation Methods Increase Rice Production in Iran to 2.7 Million Tons

“The use of high-yielding seeds, leveling of lands and the use of new cultivation methods have increased the amount of rice production in Iran,” said Sohrab Sohrabi, the executor of the plan to increase rice cultivation in Iran.

Facilitating the production and development of the second crop or retoon is one of the policies of the Agriculture Ministry to increase the productivity of rice production, and this method consumes less water,” he added.

“With the adopted measures, the amount of rice production reached 2,700,000 tons which is a huge record in rice production,” Sohrabi said.

In a relevant development in February, Iranian scientists found a new method for cultivation of rice which optimizes the use of water and decreases production of greenhouse gases.

“In this project, rice was cultivated in the form of seedlings. After separating and disinfecting the broken seeds by salt water solution, the seeds were germinated and then seeding was carried out, and after four leaves of the seedling are grown, the operation of transferring the seedling to the main land was carried out,” said Mostafa Yousefian, the manager of the project.

“In this plan, to decrease the amount of irrigation by the method of incomplete drying of the roots, the cultivation method was chosen in the form of atmospheric and piles. To prepare the land, we first plowed the surface of the field with a tractor to a depth of 20 cm, and after that, a light irrigation was carried out to germinate the weed seeds in the soil. Then, to control the weeds, the surface of the ground was sprayed with pesticides,” he added.

“The correct use of water that is provided to the farmer is of great importance because although the effect of activities that improve the efficiency of water use may be insignificant, the volume of water saved through this method is significant at the macro level,” Yousefian said.

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