Iranian date growers suffer effects of chronic drought

By Mohamed Kursun

TEHRAN (AA) – Iran’s palm tree industry has sustained considerable damage in recent months following years of drought in the country’s south.

Iran's southern Kerman province, where palm cultivation represents the main source of income for hundreds of families, has been hit particularly hard.

Officials in Kerman’s town of Qala Ganj told Anadolu Agency that local palm growers had been adversely affected by steadily declining date production as a direct result of the ongoing drought.

In recent months, they said, many farmers in southern Iran -- the center of the country’s date production -- had been forced to migrate to nearby cities.

In addition to drought, many Iranian farmers also face the twin specters of inadequate water supplies and air pollution.

According to Iran’s Fars news agency, Iran produced some 1.1 million tons of dates last year of which roughly 190,000 tons were exported abroad.