DUSHANBE, December 4, 2009, Asia-Plus — The cotton-harvesting campaign has been completed and Tajikistan has failed to fulfill the cotton target this year as well.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), cotton growers of Khatlon province have yielded 197,690 tons of cotton this year, which is 88.6 percent of the target. Khatlon pledged to produce 233,000 tons of cotton this year.
Cotton growers in the northern province of Sughd yielded 87,137 tons of cotton, which is 75.8 percent of the target. Their target was 109,000 tons.
Districts subordinate to the center gathered 10,688 tons of cotton, which is only 60.3 percent of their target. Their target was 17,800 tons.
The republic has yielded 295,516 tons of raw cotton this year, which comprises 84.4 percent of this year”s target that has been determined at 350,000 tons of raw cotton. This year, only 10 of 33 cotton producing districts in the country have fulfilled their targets.
Specialists attribute failure to fulfill this year year’s cotton target to the delayed cotton-sowing campaign that has resulted from bad weather conditions.
This year, Tajik farmers have planted cotton on 170,400 hectares. In 2008, they planted cotton on 237,000 hectares and yielded more than 353,000 tons of cotton that was 64 percent of the target determined that at 552,000 tons. In 2007, 254,279 hectares were allotted for cotton production and farmers gathered 419,597 tons of cotton, which was 763 percent of the 2007 target determined at 547,000 tons.
According to the MoA data, more than 30,000 farming units now operate in Tajikistan and more them 21,000 of them are engaged in cotton production.
