Planting pistachios in 370 hectares of agricultural lands of West Azerbaijan
Rasoul Jalili stated that due to climate change and in case of financing from the site of improvement, revitalization and replacement of orchards and change of cultivation pattern in order to revitalize Lake Urmia, to develop low-water products such as pistachios and elm instead of other horticultural products. It can be added: this change in the cultivation pattern in the first stage will cause the economy of gardeners to flourish and secondly, the dried fruit products will replace the table products.
He stated: Pistachio seedlings have been planted in 370 hectares of agricultural lands in the province with the aim of managing water consumption by promoting alternative cultivation, and the main pistachio cultivation is in the lands of Urmia, Salmas, Mahabad and Naghadeh in the catchment area of Lake Urmia.
The head of the West Azerbaijan Agricultural Jihad Organization said: Out of a total of 370 hectares of pistachio orchards, about 50 hectares are fertile seedlings and the rest have not yet reached the age of economic fruiting.
Referring to the average production of 500 kg of pistachios per hectare, Jalili added: This year, more than 25 tons of pistachios are expected to be harvested from the province’s orchards.
He added that the pistachio crop will be economically justified and fruitful from the sixth year of cultivation: in this regard, it has been distributed among the applicant gardeners in the province as an alternative crop of subsidized pistachio seedlings.
The head of the Agricultural Jihad Organization of West Azerbaijan, stating that the revitalization of pistachio trees is possible by using twigs, added: Using twigs can revive old pistachio trees, improve orchards with suitable and high-yielding cultivars, and in this regard with Using the credits of Urmia Lake Rehabilitation Headquarters, 38 hectares of pistachio orchards in the province have been branched this year using Ahmad Aghaei cultivars.
He added: This year, in the area of half a hectare of pistachio orchards in Urmia and Salmas counties, 12 graft cultivars sent by the Deputy Minister of Horticulture of the Ministry of Jihad for Agriculture have been used as compatible orchards. If the climate-compatible cultivars of the province are approved by the research center in the orchards, the compatibility of resistant cultivars will be promoted in the province.
Jalili mentioned the main cultivars in the gardens of the province as Ahmad Aghaei cultivars and continued: The cultivars used in the adaptation gardens are Akbari, Ahmad Aghaei, Rezaei, Abbas Ali, Shah Pasand and AN1 to AN5, male Zodgol and Nardirgol and adaptation gardens as orchards. The mother will be used to prepare the scion.
Pistachio is a product resistant to salinity of groundwater and the development of cultivation of this low-water crop and its replacement with water-rich crops is one of the programs of the Jihad Agricultural Organization of the province in order to reduce water consumption in the catchment area of Lake Urmia.