Health Impact News Editor Comments: It seems each day we read news stories about American Biotech companies advancing their products in poorer countries in the name of “feeding the poor” and solving “world hunger.” What these genetically modified seeds end up doing often, however, is replacing traditional agricultural principles and eliminating small-scale sustainable producers. (See: The collapse of native Iraqi agriculture, and the prosper of US Biotech and GMOs in Iraq for example.)
So it was refreshing to me to read about the goals of Iran to move towards sustainable organic agriculture, building upon traditional small-scale farming already in place. Perhaps not allowing American companies to invest and profit in certain countries due to political conflicts has its benefits – at least in terms of preserving local agriculture.
by Iran Daily
At least 25 percent of agricultural crops are to be produced through organic methods by the end of Fifth Five-Year Economic Development Plan (2010-15), said secretary of Strategic Committee for Organic Agriculture.
It is predicted that 143 million tons of agro products will be produced by the end of Fifth Plan, of which 30 million tons would be organic crops, Esmaeel Negaresh stated, INN.ir wrote.
Organic farming is a form of agriculture that relies on techniques such as crop rotation, green manure, compost and biological pest control to maintain soil productivity and control pests on a farm.
Organic farming excludes or strictly limits the use of manufactured fertilizers, pesticides (which include herbicides, insecticides and fungicides), plant growth regulators such as hormones, livestock antibiotics, food additives, and genetically modified organisms.
Pointing to the responsibilities of Agricultural Jihad Ministry in this respect, Negaresh said standards for production of healthy crops have been compiled, adding the maximum residue level (MRL) database for over 2,000 crops has been prepared and notified to provinces.
Total area under cultivation in Iran is 11-13 million hectares most of which are under traditional farming systems with smallholder farmers involved in subsistence agriculture.
Since many farmers in their small farms and gardens never use agrochemicals and employ sustainable approaches for crop production during land preparation, crop nutrition, soil fertility as well as pest, disease and weed management, their agroecosystems are potentially organic or can be easily converted to organic.
These farmers grow a wide range of crops (including cereals, root crops and medicinal plants), fruits (nuts, apple, pomegranate, citrus, fig and grapes) and vegetables that all have an expanding organic market worldwide.
There are, however, some obstacles in certifying these products as organic. According to the EU rules, each farmer has to be inspected annually. Iran is a developing country where many farmers have small farms.
Group certification can be seen as an alternative for these farmers and farmers’ groups that may consist of a hundred to several thousands small scale producers will be co-certified as a unit. Educating farmers on the principles and objectives of organic farming and short- and long- term benefits of organic certification also should be considered.
Read the full article here: http://www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20110430043823