Iran, FAO agree to expand cooperation on plant
protection

Iran’s Deputy Minister of Agriculture Seyed Mojtaba Khayyam
Nekouei and Yuak Dhoj G C, the FAO representative ad interim to Iran, discussed
ways to improve cooperation in the field of plant protection. 

A technical cooperation program (TCP) between the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Ministry of
Agriculture needs to be launched with the aim of boosting cooperation in the
area of plant protection, Khayyam Nekouei said in a recent meeting with Dhoj G
C in Tehran.

Dhoj G C welcomed the suggestion by the deputy minister and
promised to pave the way for its launch. 

Plant protection is a branch of agricultural sciences that
studies biology and the ecology of crops' harmful organisms. It develops
methods to control and prevent crop damage and yield loss.

Plant protection involves disciplines that require knowledge
of the biology of pests, principles of crop production, biotechnology,
pesticide toxicology, and environmental sciences. Besides, plant protection is
an integrated approach based on biological control strategies, population
dynamics, and molecular and genetic understanding of plant-pathogen, plant-
pest interactions in order to minimize damaging species' impacts upon natural
environments.