Tasnim � Iran faces losing 70 percent of its farmlands if urgent action is not taken to overcome a litany of climate woes, Isa Kalantari, the country�s environment chief, said.


�We currently use about 100 percent of our renewable water ... according to global standards this figure should not be higher than 40 percent,� said Kalantari, vice president and head of Iran�s Environment Department, in an interview with AFP in Tehran.

�The excessive consumption of water, especially from groundwater, is a threat and could have terrible social consequences,� he warned.

If the situation is not brought under control, �we would lose about 70 percent of our cultivated land in a maximum of 20 to 30 years.�

�The south of Alborz and east of Zagros, if we don�t take swift action, will become unusable for agriculture,� Kalantari added.

Alborz and Zagros are mountain ranges situated in the north and west of Iran respectively.

The majority of Iran�s mostly arid land mass and population centers are located to the south and east of them.

According to the UN�s Food and Agriculture Organization, Iran, a country of some 80 million people, predominantly relies on agriculture.