Iran’s population has doubled from 33.7 million in
1976 to 70 million in 2006. According to the 2006 Census,
68.4% of the population live in urban areas and 31.6% live
in 40,000 rural villages. This census excludes the nomadic
population, which is estimated to be 1.3 million people.
Despite agricultural production growing faster than population
in the last three decades, 2.7 million people (4%) were
still undernourished and almost 2% of the population had an
income less than $1 a day (9.3% less than $2 a day) in 1990–
2003. The agricultural sector thus faces the prospect of
feeding 100 million people by 2050, as well as the challenge
of improving the livelihoods of farmers. This report
addresses the issues inherent in this dilemma.