Flood damage to Iran’s agricultural products
According to IRNA, Abbas Haj Abdulahi, director of the agricultural Jihad of Rafsanjan said: Most of the pistachio orchards were flooded in Keshkoiyeh, Noug and the suburbs of Rafsanjan, and in this regard, the trees of the orchards affected by the flood will dry up.
He advised the farmers to empty the flood mud in the gardens as soon as possible so as not to cause the roots to dry up and the pistachio trees to die. The head of the Rafsanjan Agricultural Jihad added that the flood has caused the most damage to the pistachio orchards of Rafsanjan in the area of Kutsarriz and Ahmedabad, Daefa Razavi.
He also said: The severity of the flood in some areas of Rafsanjan was so great that many trees in these gardens were uprooted. Rafsanjan has more than 80,000 hectares of pistachio orchards and is located 115 km from Kerman provience.
Also, Moqdad Teklozadeh, secretary of the National Date Association of Iran, emphasized that due to the continued rains, it is too early to estimate and announce the amount of damage.
He continued: In general, it can be said that in Kerman province, due to the fact that the rains occurred mostly in the mountainous areas, the amount of damage to the groves is less, but in Bushehr and Khuzestan provinces, the severity of the damage will be greater.
Teklozadeh stated that the damage caused to the palm groves is divided into two categories, and stated: The first category is the damage caused by the fall of products from the palm trees, which happened under the influence of the intensity of rainfall, and the other category is the increase in humidity and its penetration into the product, which leads to dates become sour and moldy and reduce the possibility of keeping them in cold storages and warehouses.
He clarified: In Sistan and Baluchistan province, Bushehr and Khuzestan, the losses are more in the form of crop loss and in Kerman province in the form of moisture penetration and sourness of the crop.
According to the secretary of the National Date Association of Iran; Among date cultivars, the most damages are related to Mozafti variety due to infiltration of moisture and acidity.
In response to the question that measures have been put on the agenda to compensate for the damages of the flooded palm groves, Teklozadeh said: “Agricultural product insurance is the best way to compensate for damages and it is usually done all over the world, but in Iran there is a proportionality between the compensation paid and the amount of damages.” There is no compensation to the farmer, in other words, usually the amount of damage paid is less than the damage caused, so even if the grove is insured, the government must step in to compensate for the damage.
In response to another question that the amount of flood damage will affect this year’s date market, Teklozadeh said: It is unlikely that it will have a noticeable effect on this year’s date market, because our forecast before the recent heavy rains was that the production of dates this year should increase by 10% compared to last year.
He reminded: The recent torrential rains have affected the quality of the products more than the quantity and have affected the quality of some cultivars such as Mozafati and Pyaram.
According to the announcement of the National Date Association of Iran, the average production of dates in the country is between 1,250,000 and 1,300,000 tons, which decreased to 1,800,000 tons last year due to the heat stress in July and August. However, it is expected that date production will increase by 10 percent this year compared to last year.
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