An Iranian business delegation has traveled to Balkh province for discussions with Afghan businessmen, including farmers.

The meeting was organized by the Iranian Trade Center in order to support farmers and standardize Afghanistan’s agriculture sector in Balkh province.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Iran Trade Center said at the meeting that his country is helping Afghan farmers to mechanize agriculture and solve infrastructure problems in the sector.

Hossein Azari, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Iran Business Center, said: “I am honored to meet with the businessmen of Mazar-e-Sharif, the head of agriculture, livestock and irrigation of Balkh province, and the high-level officials of the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Investment, and I believe that success is more in teamwork.”

He added: “We hope that the infrastructure of agriculture, the infrastructure of production and industrial units, and the transfer of technical knowledge will become more prosperous with the help of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Afghanistan, and in today’s meeting, there was a discussion on investment in different agricultural sectors in the axis of extra-territorial cultivation and creation of farm process of agricultural products..”

The Chamber of Commerce and Investment of the country also expressed hope that memorandums of understanding will be signed between Afghanistan and Iran.

Khairuddin Mayel, the deputy head of the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Investment, said: “Based on the memorandums signed in the center, we had a meeting with our Iranian friends, and they offered a proposal to standardize Afghanistan’s agriculture, and I think this meeting was very good and useful.”

He added: “I hope that a memorandum of understanding will be signed between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Afghanistan so that we can see progress in agriculture in our beloved country.”

At the same time, officials from the Balkh Department of Agriculture say that they need the support of neighboring countries, especially Iran, to standardize agriculture.

Shamsuddin Khalid, head of agriculture and livestock of Balkh, said: “We are ready to have a memorandum of understanding with the Islamic Republic of Iran and other countries to standardize Afghanistan’s agriculture.”

Efforts are being made to deal with the problems of farmers while the lack of water, the high price of chemical fertilizers, the high price of agricultural spices, the lack of cold storage facilities, and the lack of access to advanced agricultural tools are considered to be the basic problems of the farmers in the country.