DUSHANBE, January 23, 2009, Asia-Plus — The Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) recommends that farming units having cotton yields lower than 2.5 tons per hectare should not grow cotton, according to Agriculture Minister Qosim Qosimov.
Qosimov told a January 22 press conference in Dushanbe that cotton growing for farming units with low productivity will be at loss. “The ministry will not insist that they should grow cotton,” the minister said, adding that they would help such farms shift to growing other crops.
On the new mechanism of financing of the cotton sector, the minister noted that of 140 million somoni of the state loan funds, farms have repaid 33 million somoni of the principal and another 2 million somoni of interest on loans so far. “However, farmers should hurry to pay off their debts in order to receive new loans in spring,” Qosimov said, noting that the government plans to provide 180 million somoni to support the cotton sector this year.
According to him, this year’s cotton harvest is expected to be 580,000 tons.
According to the MoA, areas under cotton this year will be reduced to 202,000 hectares. However, the minister is sure that despite reduction in cotton fields the expected cotton harvest may be yielded “due to high productivity and timely solution of all topical issues, including provision of farming units with fertilizers and fuels.”
