Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0179/01792.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 32KB | 549 lines

$Unique_ID{COW01792}
$Pretitle{268}
$Title{Iran
Chapter 3D.   Agriculture}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Angus MacPherson}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{iran
percent
exports
million
land
imports
trade
oil
agricultural
government}
$Date{1987}
$Log{}
Country:     Iran
Book:        Iran, A Country Study
Author:      Angus MacPherson
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1987

Chapter 3D.   Agriculture

    After nearly achieving agricultural self-sufficiency in the 1960s, Iran
reached the point in 1979 where 65 percent of its food had to be imported.
Declining productivity was blamed on the use of modern fertilizers, which had
inadvertently scorched the thin Iranian soil. Unresolved land reform issues, a
lack of economic incentives to raise surplus crops, and low profit ratios
combined to drive increasingly large segments of the farm population into
urban areas.

    The 1979 Revolution sought self-sufficiency in foodstuffs as part of its
overall goal of decreased economic dependence on the West. Higher government
subsidies for grain and other staples and expanded short- term credit and tax
exemptions for farmers complying with government quotas were intended by the
new regime to promote self-sufficiency. But by early 1987, Iran was actually
more dependent on agricultural imports than in the 1970s.

Water

    Iran's land surface covers 165 million hectares, more than half of which
is uncultivable. A total of 11.5 million hectares is under cultivation at any
time, of which 3.5 million hectares were irrigated in 1987, and the rest
watered by rain. Only 10 percent of the country receives adequate rainfall for
agriculture; most of this area is in western Iran. The water shortage is
intensified by seasonal rainfalls. The rainy season occurs between October and
March, leaving the land parched for the remainder of the year. Immense
seasonal variations in flow characterize Iran's rivers. The Karun River and
other rivers passing through Khuzestan (in the southwest at the head of the
Gulf) carry water during periods of maximum flow that is ten times the amount
borne in dry periods. Several of the government's dam projects are on these
rivers. In numerous localities, there may be no precipitation until sudden
storms, accompanied by heavy rains, dump almost the entire year's rainfall in
a few days. Often causing floods and local damage, the runoffs are so rapid
that they cannot be used for agricultural purposes.

    Water shortages are compounded by the unequal distribution of water. Near
the Caspian Sea, rainfall averages about 128 centimeters per year, but in the
Central Plateau and in the lowlands to the south it seldom exceeds 10 to 12
centimeters, far below the 26 to 31 centimeters usually required for dry
farming (see Climate, ch. 2).

    Scarcity of water and of the means for making use of it have constrained
agriculture since ancient times. To make use of the limited amounts of water,
the Iranians centuries ago developed man-made underground water channels
called qanats that were still in use in 1987. They usually are located at the
foot of a mountain and are limited to land with a slope. A qanat taps water
that has seeped into the ground and channels it via straight tunnels to the
land surface. The qanats are designed to surface in proximity to village
crops.

    The chief advantage of the qanat is that its underground location prevents
most of the evaporation to which water carried in surface channels is subject.
In addition, the qanat is preferable to the modern power-operated deep well
because it draws upon underground water located far from the villages. The
chief disadvantages of the qanat's are the costs of construction and
maintenance and a lack of flexibility; the flow cannot be controlled, and
water is lost when it is not being used to irrigate crops.

    In the late 1980s, an estimated 60,000 qanats were in use, and new units
were still being dug (although not in western Iran, where rainfall is
adequate). To assist villagers, the government undertook a program to clean
many qanats after the Revolution in 1979. Qanat water is distributed in
various ways: by turn, over specified periods; by division into shares; by
damming; and by the opening of outlets through which the water flows to each
plot of land. So important is the qanat system to the agricultural economy and
so complex is the procedure for allocating water rights (which are inherited),
that a large number of court cases regularly deal with adjudication of
conflicting claims.

    Construction of large reservoir dams since World War II has made a major
contribution to water management for both irrigation and industrial purposes.
Dam construction has centered in the province of Khuzestan in the southwest as
a result of the configuration of its rivers flowing from the Zagros Mountains.
The upper courses flow in parallel stretches before cutting through the
surrounding mountains in extremely narrow gorges called tangs. The terrain in
Khuzestan provides good dam sites. The government set up the Khuzestan Water
and Power Authority in 1959 to manage natural resources in that province. All
economic development plans emphasized the need to improve water supplies and
reservoirs so as to improve crop production. Large reservoirs were built
throughout the country, beginning with the Second Development Plan. The first
dams were built on the Karaj, Safid, and Dez rivers.

    The first of the major dams had a significant impact on the Iranian
economy. Completed in 1962, the Mohammad Reza Shah Dam on the Dez River was
designed to irrigate the Khuzestan plain and to supply electricity to the
province. After several years of operation, the dam had achieved only a small
part of its goals, and the government decided that the lands below the dam and
other dams nearing completion required special administration. As a
consequence, a law was passed in 1969 nationalizing irrigable lands downstream
from dams. The lands below the Mohammad Reza Shah Dam were later leased to
newly established domestic and foreign companies that became known as
agribusinesses.

Land Use

    Desert, wasteland, and barren mountain ranges cover about half of Iran's
total land area. Of the rest, in the 1980s about 11 percent was forested,
about 8 percent was used for grazing or pastureland, and about 1.5 percent was
made up of cities, villages, industrial centers, and related areas. The
remainder included land that was cultivated either permanently or on a
rotation, dry-farming basis (about 14 percent) and land that could be farmed
with adequate irrigation (about 15 to 16 percent). Some observers considered
the latter category as pastureland.

    In most regions, the natural cover is insufficient to build up much
organic soil content, and on the steeper mountain slopes much of the original
earth cover has been washed away. Although roughly half of Iran is made up of
the arid Central Plateau, some of the gentler slopes and the Gulf lowlands
have relatively good soils but poor drainage. In the southeast, a high wind
that blows incessantly from May to September is strong enough to carry sand
particles with it. Vegetation can be destroyed, and the lighter soils of the
region have been stripped away.

    In mountain valleys and in areas where rivers descending from the
mountains have formed extensive alluvial plains, much of the soil is of medium
to heavy texture and is suited to a variety of agricultural uses when brought
under irrigation. Northern soils are the richest and the best watered. The
regions adjacent to Lake Urmia (also cited as Lake Urumiyeh and formerly known
as Lake Rezaiyeh under the Pahlavis) and the Caspian Sea make up only about 25
percent of the country's area but produce 60 percent or more of its major
crops.

    The land reform program of 1962 affected agricultural lands and the
production of crops. Implemented in three stages, the program redistributed
agricultural lands to the peasantry, thereby lessening the power of the fe