DUSHANBE, November 10, 2008, Asia-Plus — Share of cotton fiber in Tajikistan’s exports decreased from 9 percent in 2003 to nearly 2 percent in 2007, World Bank Lead Economist, Mr. Sudarshan Kanagaraja (phonetically spelled), announced at presentation of the World Bank Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) in Dushanbe on November 7.
In the meantime, according to the WB review “Agriculture: Prospects and Problems of Growth,” the share of the non-cotton agricultural sector in the country’s GDP increased from 13 percent in 2004 to 19 percent in 2007, the WB expert noted. According to him, decrease in the cotton production volumes in Tajikistan has resulted from reduction of areas of arable land under cotton and low cotton yields, while production of grains and vegetables has increased due to both increase in areas of arable land under those crops and increase in productivity.
According to the “Agriculture: Prospects and Problems of Growth”, farmers would prefer to plant high-yielding crops and use large volumes of fertilizers for cultivation of grains and vegetables rather than cotton. The review, in particular, noted that farming units do not have an opportunity of free choice of agricultural crops for production and realization. The review also pointed out undevelopment of agricultural markets and limited potential for processing farm produce (limited domestic market and technical restrictions on export), shortage of loan means and the land use issues, as well as high prices of fertilizers while world farm produce prices are decreasing.
