DUSHANBE, November 19, 2008, Asia-Plus — The country’s cotton growers are taking real measures to gather cotton without any loss, however, bad weather conditions have seriously affected this year’s cotton-harvesting campaign, Saidmurod Bahriddinov, the head of the crop sector department within the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
According to him, cotton growers in some districts of Sughd and Khatlon province have not picked cotton over the past week because of torrential rains and they resumed cotton harvesting only on November 18.
The country had yielded 330,972 tons of cotton by November 17, which comprises only 49.9 percent of this year’s target. We will recall that the national target for 2008 has been determined at 553,200 tons of cotton.
Cotton growers of the Khatlon province have yielded 222,000 tons of cotton by November 17, which is 66.9 percent of the target. Their target is 331,900 tons of cotton.
The northern Sughd province has pledged to produce 172,100 tons of cotton this year. The Sughd farmers have gathered 85,440 tons by November 17, which is 49.6 percent of the target.
District subordinate to the center (RRPs) have yielded 23,445 tons of cotton by Monday, which is 48.3 percent of the target that has been determined at 48,500 tons of raw cotton.
This year, farmers have planted cotton on an area of 242,439 hectares.
We will recall that in 2007, farmers planted the area of 254,279 hectares and gathered 419,597 tons of cotton, which was 76.3 percent of the target determined at 550,000 tons.
As it had been reported earlier, President Emomali Rahmon on October 22 2008 held a meeting to discuss the situation in the agrarian sector. During the meeting, it was noted that cotton farmers are expected to yield more than 410,000 tons of cotton this year.
Cotton makes an important contribution to both the agricultural sector and the national economy. Cotton accounts for 60 percent of agricultural output, supports 75 percent of the rural population, and uses 45 percent of irrigated arable land. At the national level, it is an important source of both export earnings and tax revenue. Tajikistan is the world’s fourth largest exporter of cotton, and there is strong demand on international markets for its high quality product.
According to figures provided by the State Committee for Statistics, a share of cotton fiber has accounted for 7.2 percent of Tajikistan’s exports in January-October. Over the report period, Tajikistan has exported 67,000 tons of cotton fiber for a total amount of 89.5 million US dollars, which is 20,500 tons or 8.1 million dollars fewer than in the same period of 2007.
This year, an average price of one ton of cotton fiber has been 1,336 US dollars.
