Financial Tribune - Climate change caused around 220 trillion rials (more than $1.97 billion) in damage to Iran�s agriculture during the first half of the current Iranian year (March 21-Sept. 22), according to the Director General of the Crisis Management and Reduction of Hazards Bureau with the Ministry of Agriculture.

�Drought, cold snaps, dry spells, precipitation, hailstorms and floods were the main causes of the losses. Drought and frost accounted for some 90% of the damages made to the country�s different fields of agriculture,� Mohammad Mousavi was quoted by IRNA as saying.

Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time.