The Problem of Our Agriculture is the Non-scientific View of Managers

Abbas Zali, the former Minister of Agriculture, said: "Not only in the past, but also at present, In the minds of some officials, it has been fixed that working in Agriculture does not need that much knowledge."

Abbas Zali, the former Minister of Agriculture, in an interview with the reporter of the Khatam University’s website, on the sidelines of the 40-year policy-making conference in the agricultural sector, which was held at Khatam University, emphasized on the fact that some officials, either in the past or today, have thought that Agriculture is not a science and does not need much knowledge and added: "The scientific scope of the Agriculture field is wider than all other sectors and industries. The existing wrong mentality has caused us not to focus on Agriculture as we should."

"Agriculture in our country has a long history. In 1919, a school named Barzegaran was established in Karaj, whose purpose was to introduce agriculture to people. This school was later changed to the Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Our scientific agricultural institutes are large in number, but the state of our agriculture today is not acceptable, which is due to the neglect of updating this sector with modern science", he further added.

Zali also said: "Americans took pistachios from our country and today their performance in this field is much better than ours. In the rainiest years in our country, the average wheat production was 4.3 tons. At the same years, in Turkey or Egypt, their wheat production was much higher than this amount, which certainly did not happen due to a difference in weather conditions, but the utilization of better seeds."

The former Minister of Agriculture also explained: "We must try to make our Agriculture more scientific, which has two dimensions; Either to increase the literacy of our farmers or to increase scientific investments in the agricultural sector. The Supreme Leader has two announcements on this matter, but unfortunately both of them have been neglected. In 2005, setting necessary conditions for the private sectors to enter the agriculture field was emphasized, and in 2006, they issued another complete notification with the aim of shrinking the government. However, today, the size of our government is several times bigger than advanced governments in the world."

"Our officials do not deal with these main issues because they get caught up in some details. I definitely hope that the current government succeeds in paving the way for the private sector investment in agriculture and removing burdensome regulations" he added.

In the end, while praising the organizers of this conference, Zali said: "Imam Rahel and the leader of the Islamic Revolution considered Agriculture as the foundation of other sectors and believed that if agriculture moves correctly, industry and other sectors will also work well."