Greenhouse Cultivation on 11,400 Hectares

EghtesadOnline: The area under greenhouse cultivation in Iran has increased by 37.2% since President Hassan Rouhani took office in August 2013 to reach 11,425 hectares, Deputy Agriculture Minister Mohammad Ali Tahmasebi said.

News ID: ۷۷۵۷۷۴

27 April 2017

“Some 3,000 hectares of greenhouses have been set up over the period. The construction of every one square meter of a greenhouse costs between $1,330 and $2,130. The government is planning to build small-scale greenhouses to increase agro production and create more jobs,” he was quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.

According to another deputy minister, Ali Akbar Mehrfard, the Ministry of Agriculture plans to transfer all vegetable farms to greenhouses within 10 years.

“As such, some 10 billion cubic meters of water will be saved annually,” he said in February.

According to Seyyed Mohammad Kiyaei, director of the Greenhouses, Medicinal Plants and Mushroom Department of the Agriculture Ministry, Iran is home to only 0.3% of the world’s greenhouses, Financial Tribune reported.

First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri said one of the main priorities of the government is to develop industrial greenhouses.

The biggest greenhouse in southern Iran was launched in December in Roudan County of Hormozgan Province.

The greenhouse—constructed in an 11-hectare plot of land by the private sector—has created 120 direct and over 250 indirect jobs.

Aad Verbakel, founder of Dutch agricultural firm VB Group, signed a preliminary agreement last year to build a 20-hectare greenhouse in Iran.

“This large-scale modern greenhouse complex, which will meet the needs of local food and flower production, will be realized by VB Greenhouse Projects,” the Dutch firm reported on its website.