DUSHANBE, April 20, 2011, Asia-Plus — The government has earmarked a 90 million somoni credit for cotton growing farms for this year, but no one cotton-growing farm has applied to credit organizations for loan to date, Deputy Agriculture Minister, Sijouddin Isroilov, announced at a news conference in Dushanbe.
According to him, the main reason for refusal of farming units from the loans is a high interest rate on the government loans. Last year, the government loans were provided at annually interest rate of 10 to 12 percent.
Besides, the banks through which the government credit should be provided have not yet ended all procedures for issuing these loans, while farmers cannot wait, the deputy minister said.
“Moreover, cotton farmers earned good money last year due to rise in the international cotton prices and they now use their own funds for growing cotton,” Isroilov noted.
