ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the whole range of factors that affected agricultural production in order to put military spending into perspective: the country's high population-growth rates, the natural limitations of Iran's farmland, and the increasing intervention of the government in agriculture. Agriculture continued to be significant in terms of employment, however. The proportion of development funds allocated to agriculture did decline abruptly from 22.5 percent of the Third Plan budget to 13.5 percent of the Fourth. Commercial farmers who remained in agriculture would have benefited from loans at favorable interest rates. Changes in the government's policies regarding landholding and management had an impact on agriculture probably equal to that of development financing. The Ministry of Agriculture was instructed to promote agribusiness through preferential financing and by using eminent domain to allow them to take over the most well-irrigated land.
