Dryland Agricultural Research Institute (DARI) 

at glance

DARI is one of the many institutes working under the umbrella of main part of the Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), with the objective of performing research activities amid to improve crop production in dryland farming system. Research findings are disseminated to the farmers through pilot and on-farm demos and workshops or field days for the implementation and to executive agencies and decision-making authorities for providing supports needed to increase crop production under dryland conditions.

DARI officially was established in 1992 on a 500 hectares lands, with headquarter and main research station located at 29 km east of Maragheh towards the Hashtroud city, Esat Azarbaijan, Iran. A branch of DARI, representing drylands in moderate climatic zone is located at Sararod station in Kermanshah province on 160 hectares farm lands. Research departments including Cereal, Food legumes, Forage crops, Oil seed crops and resource management departments lead research projects country wide on 5 main stations and 9 sub-stations in different agro-climatic regions. Main research stations include:

 Maragheh, East Azarbaijan province (main station for cold regions)

 Sararood, Kermanshah province (main station for moderate regions)

 Gachsaran, Kohkiloye – Boirahmad province (main station for warm and semi-warm regions)

 Shirvan, North Khorasan province (main stationfor cold and severe drought regions)

 Ghamloo, Kurdistan province (main station for the cold and mountainous regions)

Research stations in Zanjan, Lorestan, West Azarbaijan, Ilam, Ardabil, Golestan, Hamedan and Markazi provinces are also cooperating with DARI in implementing research projects on major dryland farming regions of the country.

Plant breeding at DARI resulted in the release of 75 new cultivars by 2021, including 48 cereal varieties, 11 chickpeas, 5 lentils and 7 forage and 4 oil seed crops varieties that today cover more than 60 percent of drylands in Iran. Furthermore, research activities at resource management department provided technical instructions for the general agronomic practices and detailed information on the optimum sowing date, seed density and fertilizer application, proper rotation systems, specially recommended for each newly released cultivar.

Every season DARI engages in several joint projects with extension service, on-farm trials, and innovation platforms to transfer latest research findings to the farmers. DARI, also plays a significant role in seed multiplication, annually providing close to 5000 tons of breeder and foundation seed to the private seed companies and major farmers involved in seed multiplication across country.

Promoting the principle of conservation agriculture for a more sustainable farming system and precision agriculture, facilitating a bigger role for the private sector through transfer of developed technologies including the released cultivars, to the private companies and facilitating the establishment of knowledge based startup agriculture companies are among major policies followed at DARI in large extent.