DUSHANBE, August 17, 2009, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan is gradually abandoning the tradition of mono-crop agriculture.
Saidmurod Bahriddinov, the head of the crop production department within the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), said in an interview with Asia-Plus that they were rethinking the cotton economy and the ministry has suggested that the practice of forcing unproductive farming units to grow cotton in order to fulfill the government quotas should be abandoned. According to him, they are taking measures to help farmers make the change from cotton to other crops more suitable to their circumstances.
Tajikistan is growing more food and grain this year at the expense of cotton. In 2009, Tajikistan set aside 202,000 hectares for cotton planting, some 20 percent less land than was cultivated last year, but because of bad weather conditions they have planted cotton on little more than 170,000 hectares. Farms that last year reported cotton yields of less than 2.0 tons/ha have been recommended to make the change to other agricultural crops.
In all, there are some 500,000 irrigated lands in Tajikistan, Bahriddinov said.
On the other hand, cotton may become very profitable agricultural crop for Tajikistan if to develop the cotton subsector, the MoA official said.
“Cotton is not only fiber. 14 items of different industrial goods may be produced from cotton,” said Bahriddinov, “The government is currently taking efforts to create conditions to process the whole cotton Tajikistan produces into manufactured goods inside the country. A number of textile factories are being constructed in the country”
He added that Tajikistan now determined quality of cotton fiber in accordance with international practice, which allows setting a better price for Tajik cotton on international markets and higher rewards for Tajik farmers.
“In January-July this year, closed joint-stock company (CJSC) Tajikistan-WIS (Wakefield Inspection Services) operating in the country has certified more than 70,000 of cotton in accordance with international practice and has issued more than 540 certificates,” Bahriddinov said, noting that four labs for classifying cotton fiber quality and issuing international standard compliance certificates were set up in Tajikistan.
“The next move will be construction of customs warehouses, in which farmers will able to keep their products,” said the MoA official. “The warehouses will have contact with world cotton markets. Due to this, we will able to know how much unrealized products remain and farmers may realize their products directly, without resellers.”
