DUSHANBE, February 27, 2012, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan is seeking international aid for agrarian sector.
Speaking at a meeting with representatives of international organizations active in Tajikistan, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Sijouddin Isroilov noted on February 27 that Tajikistan’s agrarian sector is now in acute need of international aid to mitigate effects of unfavorable weather conditions.
According to him, dry autumn of 2010 and dry spring of 2011 as well as early fall of temperature in autumn of 2011 and heavy snow during winter months caused serious damage to the country’s agrarian sector.
“According to information collected by the working group, wheat seed stores for 2012 amount to only 38,000 tons and potato seed stores for this year amount to 52,000 tons,” said the deputy minister. “Meanwhile, we plan to increase our wheat fields to 219,000 hectares and potato fields to 22,000 hectares. For this, we need 43,800 tons of wheat seeds and 77,000 tons of potato seeds.”
He noted that according to the preliminary data, damage caused to the crop sector is estimated at 4.4 million somoni and damage caused to the livestock sector is estimated at 3.7 million somoni.
Farming units are currently experiencing an acute shortage of concentrated food that is one of the main reasons for loss of cattle, the deputy minister said.
Isroilov added that Tajikistan would not be able to tackle the problems without aid from international organizations. “There are enough seeds and fodders inside the country itself but there is needed financial support for purchasing them,” he said.
