Editorial Topic: Agricultural meteorology in Iran: The path taken

With the current issue, the journal of agricultural meteorology starts its tenth year of publication among Iranian-scientific journals. On the other hand, 2023 is the fiftieth year of the establishment of educational, research and implementation activities in the field of agrometeorology. On this occasion, the editorial topic of this issue is dedicated to a brief introduction of agricultural meteorology and its fifty-year advancements in Iran. Agricultural meteorology entered the circle of applied sciences when in the early 1930s scientists attentions were focused on the physical processes of agricultural soils, crops micrometeorology and other factors affecting crops yield enhancement. Therefore, by the late 1950s, many of the physical laws of physiological processes of agricultural crops, water-soil-plant relationship and crops microclimates were known. The use of meteorological data, from the 1970s onwards, for optimizing of agricultural and horticultural operational managements, entered the practical stage in most countries of the world. From the end of the last century until now, the technology of remote sensing and smart agriculture has been used and developed. In Iran, the organized activities of agricultural meteorology started at the end of 1973, therefore, the following plans were made: 1) training of agricultural meteorology experts, 2) designing and implementing of agricultural meteorology network, and 3) equipping the necessary technical tools for this network. Unfortunately, only the first step was relatively managed, while the other two steps were not put to actions for several years. The objectives of Iranian agricultural meteorology expansion, for this period, were pursued and resumed from 1991 onwards. In the final part of this note, the process of intensifying education, research, advisory services and challenges are mentioned. Currently, the agricultural meteorology postgraduate studies are active in universities of Tehran, Ferdowsi, Sari, Semnan, Buali Sina and Azad up to the doctoral level. Mashhad Climatology Research Institute, which has a positive and older experience, is also considered one of the strong arms of agricultural meteorology in Iran. The Ilam Agro-meteorological research institute is also a relatively new fundamental research center, which established in this field. Based on these findings, the country's educational and research performance in the discussed field would be evaluated positive, but absolutely insufficient.