An Economic Official: Iran Has the Capacity to Produce Food for 300 Million People; Nikahang Kosar: Managers Have No Understanding of the Situation

Despite Iran’s water crisis and warnings about the forced migration of millions of people due to water scarcity, the head of the Agricultural Commission of the Chamber of Cooperation claimed that Iran has the capacity to produce food for “more than 300 million people.” According to Nikahang Kosar, a water sector expert, such statements indicate that “managers have no understanding of the situation.”

Arslan Ghassemi, head of the Agricultural Commission of the Chamber of Cooperation, in an interview with ILNA published on Wednesday, April 30, called for a reconsideration of policymaking and decision-making in the agricultural sector. Referring to the 35 percent loss of agricultural products in the country, he said that to reduce these losses, there must be “fundamental thinking.”

Stating that “Iran has the capacity to produce food for 300 million people,” he noted that the country’s agricultural products are exported to neighboring countries both “formally and informally.”

Nikahang Kosar, a journalist and researcher in the water sector, in an interview with the Persian service of Voice of America, while pointing to the impact of climate change and developments over time, including population growth, emphasized that the ratio of water per citizen compared to 100 years ago has become “one-thirteenth.”

This water sector researcher, warning of “public protests and even violence that cannot be prevented,” said: “The fact that 35 percent of our water resources are wasted due to agricultural losses shows that managers have no understanding of the situation, or if they do, they don’t want to take logical action on this matter because of the ruling ideology, and they want even if water is saved, to produce more, based on statements made by Ayatollah Khamenei in this year’s Nowruz.”

The population growth policy, which is being pursued through the population rejuvenation law, is one of the demands of Iran’s Islamic Republic leader.

Previously, Mostafa Fadaifard, former head of the specialized flood assessment committee of Iran’s National Dam Committee, said: Iran’s population in the year 1420 (2041) is projected to be “approximately 100 million people,” and the amount of water needed for urban and agricultural use for this population “will exceed all renewable water in a normal period,” and obtaining “renewable water” will not be possible.

Exports also warned earlier by experts about land subsidence in 18 provinces in Iran, and Intelleb, an international research institute in the field of information consulting, described land subsidence in Tehran, which reaches 25 centimeters annually in some areas, as a “silent time bomb” that threatens Iran’s capital’s 13 million population and infrastructure.