Agricultural Potentials of Kurdistan Province

The climate and the fertile soil in Kurdistan province have created favorable conditions under which agriculture can highly develop. Kurdistan has an area of 2.8 million hectares from which 49.6% is pasture, 29% is agricultural land and 11.4% is covered by the protected forests of Zagros. As the province enjoys tremendous water resources and fertile soil, it is considered as one of the most productive provinces of Iran

Kurdistan province has won the 7th place in the country in terms of the area of land under cultivation and the 1st place in terms of the area of land cultivated by dry farming.

The highest amounts of agricultural production in Kurdistan province are as follows

Ranking	Tons	Product
(the 5th place in the country)	715,000	Wheat
(the 4th place in the country)	320,000	Potato
(the 8th place in the country)	273,000	Fodder
(the 1st place in the country)	87,000	Grapes
	43,000	Barley
	32,000	Strawberry
	18,000	Tomato

Kurdistan province produces the highest amount of strawberry in Iran and its soil is well suited for cultivating beet, potato, oil seeds, grapes, walnut and fruits with and without pit. There are also different types of wild trees like licorice, camel’s thorn, gum tragacanth, and also various types of herbs. These characteristics can help the province develop some relevant industries to alter these products. From among the agricultural products, 10 of them are more outstanding in terms of the production volume, exporting potential, and investment. These ten products can be put in the following order: strawberry, potato, walnut, grapes, apricot, peach, nectarine, quince, apple, and almond.

Kurdistan province holds 2.8% of the whole population of livestock in the country which is equal to 3.5 million herbivorous animals (1.2 animals in each hectare). This ratio is twice as much compared to the ratio of the herbivorous animals in each hectare in the country. The annual number of incubation in Kurdistan province is 23 million chickens which is equal to 2.5% of the nationwide volume.

Having the average precipitation rate of about 500 mm each year (twice as much as the average precipitation rate of the whole country), Kurdistan province is one of the most water-rich provinces in Iran. It has 50 permanent rivers, 2150 deep wells, 10270 semi-deep wells, 19575 permanent springs and 432 subterranean canals. These water sources have equipped Kurdistan province with a high potentiality for fish farming.

At the present time, there are 88 units of fish farming in the province and three other fish farming centers are under implementation which will have a production capacity of 2930 tons.