According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), Tajikistan plans to sow 605,483 hectares of agricultural lands this year.
More than 176,000 hectares will be allocated to wheat cultivation, 186,000 hectares will be sown with cotton, and about 283,000 hectares will be allocated to cultivation of vegetables, gourds and other crops.
As of February 28, about 540,000 hectares, or 90 percent, have been sown.
An official within a MoA says all categories of farms are expected to produce 1.6 million tons of cereals, including 975,000 tons of wheat, this year.
Cotton harvest is expected within 430,000 tons this year, according to him.
“Besides, farmers are tasked with producing more than 3.5 million tons of vegetables and gourds,” the source noted.
This year, areas under carrots and onions have been increased and farmers are expected to produce 747,000 of onions and more than 500,000 tons of carrots.
“Thus, Tajikistan will not only meet the population’s requirements in these agricultural products but will also be able to export surplus,” the source added.
Tajikistan’s annul requirements in onions are 300,000 tons and in carrots are 250,000 tons.
Besides, Tajikistan plans to increase potato production to 1.172 million tons due to increase in potato yield.
Speaking at a government session, President Emomali Rahmon on February 28 ordered the agrarian sector to increase yields through using the double-cropping system.
The Minister of Economic Development and Trade Zavqi Zavqizoda earlier noted that this year, double-cropping had been carried out on an area of more than 114,000 hectares, which is almost 9.0 percent more than last year.
Double-cropping is a unique production system where two crops are grown in the same field during the same year. The most common of these systems will not only have two crops grown in a single year but also harvested. In these systems, summer crops are often planted directly following the harvest of the winter crop.
