DUSHANBE, March 26, 2010, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan’s Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) says it is hopeful that Uzbek authorities will soon allow cargo cars carrying fuels to move into Tajikistan and there will be no problems with fuel supplies in the country during the sowing campaign.
Narzullo Dadaboyev, a spokesman for a MoA, says a mass sowing campaign will start in Tajikistan in April and the ministry has fully prepared for that. “To-date, there are no fuel or seed shortages,” said the spokesman, “However, the fuel supply problem may arise during the sowing campaign that may seriously affect the country’s agrarian sector.”
The MoA hopes the governments of both countries will take efforts to find solution to the Tajikistan-bound cargo transit problem.
In the meantime, Ms. Saodatsulton Saidnazarova, the chairperson of the sectoral development department within the Center for Strategic Studies under the President of Tajikistan, noted that the sowing campaign directly depended on an opportune seed, fuel and fertilizer shipments. “Delays may affect crop harvests. For example, experts estimate that late sowing campaign in the cotton subsector may decrease cotton yields by 0.7 ton per hectare,” a senior expert from the Tajik think tanks said.
We will recall that Uzbekistan began roughly two months ago to blockade the passage of Tajikistan-bound freight trains through its territory. Some 1,000 cargo cars loaded with building materials, fuel, bulldozers and excavators have been stranded on Uzbek territory. The blockade is depriving Tajik farmers of fuel just as the mass sowing campaign approaches.
