DUSHANBE, October 12, 2009, Asia-Plus — The cotton-harvesting campaign is progressing in Tajikistan and on October 11 alone, farmers yielded 7,334 tons of raw cotton, Narzullo Dadaboyev, a spokesman for the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
According to him, the Shahritus district in the southern khatlon province now tops Tajik cotton-growing districts in terms of cotton-harvesting campaign. The Shahritus cotton farmers have already reached 86.3 percent of this year’s target. Shahritus is followed the districts of Panj (69.3 percent), Hamadoni (67.6 percent), Hissar (51.3 percent) and Konibodom (50 percent).
Khatlon province has yielded 123,000 tons of cotton by October 12. Farmers in Khatlon have pledged to produce 223,000 tons of cotton this year.
Farming units in the northern Sughd province have gathered more than 41,000 tons of cotton so far; their target is 109,000 kilograms of cotton.
Districts subordinate to the center (central Tajikistan) have yielded 4,000 tons of cotton by October 12. Their target is 17,800 tons of cotton.
The republic has yielded more than 168,000 tons of raw cotton by October 12, which comprises 48 percent of this year’s target, which has been determined at 350,000 tons of raw cotton, the spokesman said.
