KULOB, June 22, 2009, Asia-Plus — Last year, branches of Amonatbonk (Tajikistan’s savings bank) in the city and the district of Kulob provided a 2 million government credit to local farmers for cotton sowing and harvesting campaign and more than 50 percent (more than 1 million somoni) of that has been repaid to this date, Rajabali Kulabekov, an agronomy expert with Amonatbobn’s branch in the city of Kulob, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
According to him, 22 farming units in the district have to repay another 938,909 somoni.
“14 cotton-growing farms in the Farkhor district have also a good chance to repay their debt the bank in the near future; in all 216,860 somoni were given to these 14 farms last year,” said expert, “It is to be noted that almost a half of a 8.22 million credit given by the government to Khatlon’s Kulob region through Amonatbonk was provided to cotton producers in Farkhor”
Last year, the government gave a 140 million somoni credit to farmers through six banks and the loans were supposed to be repaid by April 1, 2009. However, taking into account that the fall in the international price of cotton and in demand for the product hurt many Tajik farmers, the government decided to postpone debt repayments for them until November 1, 2009.
