DUSHANBE, July 15, 2010, Asia-Plus — Potato culture of Tajikistan may bear huge losses because of Uzbekistan’s blockade of rail traffic bound for Tajikistan and purchase of low-quality seed potatoes, Tajik breeder Qurbonali Partoyev said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
According to him, freight cars carrying more than 2,000 tons of seed potatoes to Tajikistan were held up on Uzbek territory for several months. Partoyev added that major part of potato tubers on the agricultural fields had been spoiled because low-quality seeds had been used.
“This year, the government has allocated 6 million somoni to the ministry of agriculture for purchasing seed potatoes in the Russian Federation,” said the expert, “Because of an Uzbek rail blockade and purchase of low-quality seeds, major part of the cargo has become useless.”
“Mountain areas of our country have very good agroecological conditions for growing potatoes that would be better than those imported from abroad delivered,” the breeder noted.
In the near future, Tajikistan’s annual requirements in seed potatoes and potatoes will be more than 100,000 and more than 700,000 tons respectively, Partoyev added.
According to him, 1 million somoni were allocated from the national budget in 2007 for purchase of seed potatoes. “Seed potatoes were planted in 17 districts of the country and the harvests were 20-30 percent higher than the yields of the imported seed potatoes,” said the expert, “We hoped that after that, domestic farming will be supported but that has not happened.”
