Wheat project manager of the ministry of agriculture said: according to the plan about 6 million hectares of land will be allocated for wheat cultivation.

Esmail Esfandiaripoor stated that 2 million hectares of irrigated wheat and 4 million hectares of dry land wheat are cultivated in the country, stating that this year’s program of cultivation of wheat in the country is about 6 million hectares and the cultivation period is 100 days from early October until the first week of January.

He pointed out that about 99% of cultivation is done in autumn, adding that cultivation starts in cold climates of the country (western and northwestern provinces) then in temperate regions and later in Caspian and warm and arid regions.

He continued: by the beginning of November, about 1 million nine hundred and twenty thousand of dry land wheat had been cultivated, which means that 48% of the dry land cultivation plan has materialized, while about 350,000 hectares of land for irrigated wheat cultivation had been cultivated, and nearly 18% of irrigated cultivation has been realized.

He pointed out that in total about 2 million three hundred thousand hectares of wheat have been cultivated in the country and 38% of the program has been realized.

Esfandiaripoor said that recent rains have caused favorable cultivation conditions, adding that the cultivation rate is almost the same as last year.

He added that agriculture in this country is based on wheat adding that the date of cultivation is very important and farmers should take this into consideration as well as the cold climate of the country, which presently this is being well done.

Wheat project supervisor, referring to the supply of 470 thousand tons of seeds to wheat farmers, said: about 67 varieties of irrigated and rain-fed seeds are produced and provided to farmers by private sector companies under the supervision of ministry of agriculture.

He said that the price of seeds has also become more balanced and its uptake has increased. He predicted that most of the seeds produced would be absorbed by farmers.

The official said that the area under cultivation is said to have declined compared to the same period last year, adding: It is too early to judge and we must wait for the cultivation to end; at present about 38% of cultivation is complete. Of course there is still time to complete but with this amount of cultivation no judgment can be made.

He said the production estimate for the current year is 14.5 million tons whilst it was about 14 million tons last year.