Agricultural products of West Asian countries

Regarding the West asian region, the increase in Food demand and limited water and land resources have caused an increase in dependence on the import of basic food. According to forecasts, the production of agricultural products and fish in the "Mena" region will experience an increase of 1.5 percent over the next decade, an increase whose main factor is the improvement of the productivity of the two largest producers in the region, namely Iran and Egypt - with a growth of 2 and 1 percent, respectively. They will be its main engine.

Agriculture plays an important role in the economy of many countries in the Middle east and North Africa. The share of the agricultural sector in the economy of the countries of the region varies, which varies from about 3.2 percent in Saudi arabia to 13.4 percent in Egypt. Examining Iran's agricultural sector is one of the important points of the joint report of "FAO" and "Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development". According to the findings of this joint report, MENA region's agriculture is dominated by two regional giants, namely Iran and Egypt, countries that collectively produce half of the total value of agricultural products.

Egypt is the fourteenth producer of rice and the eighth producer of cotton in the world. In 2011, this country produced about 5.67 million tons of rice and 635 thousand tons of cotton. The cotton cultivation area is about 5% of the cultivated areas in Egypt. The total amount of product residue, which includes dry matter, reaches about 16 million tons per year. Other materials remaining from the cotton crop, which is mainly the cotton stalk, make up about 9% of the total crop residue, which, of course, is currently facing disposal problems.

Despite initial setbacks, Turkey, the world's seventh-largest agricultural producer, is looking to lease prime farmland in several African and Latin American countries to boost agricultural production amid growing global concerns about food security. With a total of 2.5 million hectares of horticultural production and 12 million hectares of cultivated crops, Iran has a valuable position in the production of agricultural products in the world and is one of the top 7 countries producing agricultural products.