EghtesadOnline: Wheat cultivation season has begun and more than 12 million tons of the staple grain are expected to be produced across the country this crop year, the head of the National Wheat Farmers’ Foundation said on Saturday.

EghtesadOnline: Cotton is set to be the first genetically-modified crop authorized for cultivation in Iran. Earlier in the current Iranian year (started March 21), the National Biosafety Council, chaired by First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri, approved the "release" of genetically-modified cotton, as biotechnologists put it, after it is approved by responsible bodies, including the ministries of agriculture and health.

EghtesadOnline: Close to 4.5 million hectares have so far gone under wheat cultivation this year, more than 1.27 million hectares of which are irrigated and 3.21 million hectares are rain-fed, showing a 7.4% and 3.7% increase respectively compared with the similar period of last year, according to the manager of the Agriculture Ministry’s “Wheat Project”.

EghtesadOnline: The Cabinet has amended the regulation based on which rice cultivation was to be restricted to the two northern provinces of Gilan and Mazandaran.

EghtesadOnline: The Agriculture Ministry has temporarily lifted restrictions on rice cultivation in the country after it had announced plans to gradually limit and ultimately ban the production of this staple crop in all provinces, except the provinces of Gilan and Mazandaran, amid fears of drought.

EghtesadOnline: Land under wheat cultivation in Iran has reached 6 million hectares in the current cultivation season (started late September of 2019), according to latest data released by the Agriculture Ministry.