DUSHANBE, February 26, Asia-Plus — Delayed cotton plow-up campaign may lead to reduction in cotton yields and thereby affect this year’s cotton harvest, Tohir Sodiqov, the head the industrial crops and cereals department within the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection (MoAEP) said.
According to him, extreme winter weather has not allowed to carry out early cotton plow-up campaign, which promotes having good harvest. “Late plow-up campaign may affect fertility of lands and the cotton yields will reduce by 500 kilograms,” Sodiqov said, noting that last year, an average productivity in Tajik cotton fields stood at 1.6 tons a hectare.
The MoAEP official noted that 241,000 hectares of farmland were allotted for cotton this year. “So far, only some 108 hectares of these lands have been plowed up,” Sodiqov said.
He said that the cotton-sowing campaign would start in the country in later March, after the Navrouz holiday.
He added that all cotton-growing farms would be provided with cottonseeds. “However, some of them will receive cottonseeds with low reproductive performance,” Sodiqov said, adding that of required 36,000 tons of cottonseeds, they had to date treated some 10,000 tons.
According to the MoAEP, there are 33 cotton-growing districts in Tajikistan. Of them, 18 are in Khatlon, 10 in Sughd, and 5 are districts subordinate to the center (RRPs).
Of 32,300 farming units registered in the country, 10,941 grow cotton, including 6,179 of located in Khatlon, 3,305 in Sughd, and 1,457 in districts subordinate to the center.
