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Iran pays nearly $100mln in compensation to farmers in flooded regions

The Iranian government pays nearly $100 million in relief to farmers in flooded regions of the country.

 

The Iranian government has paid nearly $100 million in flood relief to farmers whose lands and crops were devastated in the heavy rainfall that affected large parts of the country in April and March this year.

A senior official at Iran’s ministry of agriculture said on Tuesday that the government had provided nearly $60 million in direct payments to farmers who had incurred losses during the floods.

Seyyed Mohammad Mousavi said an extra $40 million had been paid in low-interest loans to nearly 50,000 farmers in north, west and southwest of the country, where floods had caused significant damage to the agricultural lands and crops.

The announcement comes as the Iranian government and other agencies continue with reconstruction activity in flooded regions in four main provinces.

Dozens of people were killed in the floods which continued for several weeks and caused massive damage to roads, bridges, homes and lands.

The payments to farmers are extra to other disaster funds allocated by the government to rebuild towns and villages affected by the floods.

Estimates suggest the floods had caused around 350 trillion rials ($2.5 billion) worth of damage, prompting the Iranian government  to tap into the country’s sovereign wealth fund and draw up o $2 billion for relief and reconstruction.

Various compensation schemes launched by the government, especially for the farmers, come despite various budgetary and economic issues facing the country as a result of the American sanctions.

The sanctions have made it increasingly difficult to deliver humanitarian aid to Iran while they have also affected the normal imports of foods and medicine into the country.

International estimates suggest that almost two million people were affected by floods in Iran earlier this year.


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