Iran Horticulture Potential: A Great Opportunity for Current and Future International Collaborations

It has been discovered during the past twenty years attending International Horticultural Congress (IHC), Symposium, Conference and Workshops in different countries, and also recent sabbatical leave at Cornell University, a substantial number of international colleagues showed high interest for visiting Iran as a historic country in general, and also in specific, wanted to be familiar with Iran horticulture industries potentials. In order to discuss on Iran horticulture potentials, possible limitations and scientific solutions on the problems, and also possible future collaborations at the national and international scale, it has been developed a proposal and suggested that “First International Conference and 10^th National Horticultural Science Congress of Iran (IrHC2017)” held in 2017 at Tarbiat Modares University (TMU), Iran. Proposal already approved by TMU, Iranian Society for Horticultural Science (IrSHS) and Ministry of Agriculture of Iran as main organizers. In addition, the proposal sent to International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS) and approved for better introducing Iran horticulture potentials to international delegates and wider exchange of knowledge. The Iran Horticultural Science Congress (IrHC) held every two to four years since 1996 at different cities of Iran, usually attracting 500 to 1000 delegates. According to the statistics, horticulture is one of the most important agriculture industry in Iran. The overall climatic condition of the country is temperate, although there are many micro climates with wide climate diversity throughout the country. In addition, Iran enjoys specific geographic conditions such as benefiting from approximately 250 sunny days per year, the capacity for cultivation of numerous horticultural crops throughout the country. These features make it possible to produce high quality of various horticultural crops, e.g. Iran’s horticulture sector consists of 2.5 million ha orchards with annual production of more than 15 million tons of fruit. In addition of 800,000 ha of vegetable crops, floriculture industry as well as medicinal plants. Also, Iran is center of origin for various horticultural crops and is a rich country in specific native germplasms such as Persian walnut. The quality of some Iranian products, especially dates, pistachios, figs and pomegranates, for which the country holds first position in the world. Therefore, Iran has a good potential for increasing both the quality and quantity of horticultural crops to provide the world’s horticultural markets with a wide diversity of horticultural products. The potentials, possible limitations and problems for Iran horticulture industry and also the opportunity attending IrHC2017 at TMU in Iran will discuss.